The Palace of VUTsVK

The House of the Noble Assembly was designed by architects  O. Vasiliev and N. Lobachevsky in 1814-1820. This building in the style of Russian classicism was one of the first stone buildings on Mykolaivska Square. Before the Russian Revolution, the House of Noble Assembly was rebuilt just once - after the fire of 1870, when a two-story part of the building burned down. After the revolution, the building was reconstructed by architect  O. Linetsky for the highest republican authorities - VUTSVK  (for All-Ukrainian Central Executive Committee). In 1925, B. Peretyatkovich wrote in this reconstruction in his article titled "Review of the construction of Kharkiv in recent years", published in the Architecture magazine: “... an interesting work began in 1922 to rebuild the former House of Noble Assembly and buildings around it into the building of the  VUTSVK. The author of the reconstruction project is the architect A. Linetsky, who skillfully withstood the style of the building of the aristocratic assembly that formed the wing of the new building. The decoration of the meeting room, lobby and some other rooms are worth noting. The color of the facade is a pale yellow; columns, cornices, belts, and platbands are white. Last year, the basement of the building was painted in green olive color, which does not fit the style of the building at all. During that reconstruction, the corner building of the former Astrakhansky Hotel was attached to the building of the VUTSVK. The attached building underwent major reconstruction, and its facades, by a project of young architect G. Yanovytsky, were brought in accordance with the main building. There was a square with old trees in front of it. Unfortunately, in order to keep the entire architectural composition, this square was destroyed and all trees were cut down. Instead of the destroyed square, a wide semicircle in front of the building serves as a parking lot for cars, and two flower beds are arranged quite successfully on the sides of the square. ” The end of the 1920s was marked by another reconstruction: this time the central part of the building was built up.  In January 1934 the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv, and the Kharkiv pioneers and Little Octobrists became the happy owners of the first own Palace in the whole Soviet Union - the Palace of VUTsVK was transferred to them. After one more reconstruction, the building opened its door on September 6, 1935.  Georgy Nikolsky