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Evil and bizarre Stalinism? - No, a masterpiece of Finnish architectoral design. (The second prize competition
entry for the design of the Chicago Tribune tower in 1922.)
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Grotesque?
There is a lot of
anti-Soviet criticism against the Stalinist skyscrapers, which
claims that they are grotesque, totalitarian, tasteless and
completely bizarre creations of madmen formed by a mad ideology.
However, they were very much a product of their time.
The designs of the
buildings were made in the 1920's, and when one compares them to
other great building projects from the same time, like a fair lot
of the buildings in central New York City, they suddenly don't
seem so very strange. Another good example is the competition
entry for the Chicago Tribune tower by Finnish architect Eliel
Saarinen (who also designed Helsinki central station), whose
"colossal beauty" the jury praised, and which earned the
second prize, even though it arrived at a point when the winners
had already been chosen.
Maybe it is just the
fact that the Soviet highrises stand more or less alone among
lower and less spectacular buildings that makes them stick out,
whereas the buildings in cities like New York and Chicago form a
more continuous picture. |
