Old Kyiv Skyscrapers: Five Early High-Rises of the City

Over the past century, the architecture of Ukraine's capital has gone through many changes. Kyiv saw a particularly intense building boom at the turn of the 20th century, which transformed its appearance completely. A city that had once looked more like a large village became a showcase of Art Nouveau and early modern architecture, where the first giant buildings rose. Not everyone welcomed these changes, of course, but they set Kyiv on the path to becoming a major world city. Here are five Kyiv "skyscrapers" that caused a real sensation in architectural circles in their day.

The project was started by Oleksii Danylevskyi, who tried to finance it by running what was essentially Kyiv's first pyramid scheme. Things did not go as planned: his company went bankrupt and he ended up in prison. The construction hardly suffered, however, because Danylevskyi's land passed to the merchant Parfentii Popov, who took over the project. For the work, which lasted from 1894 to 1901, he hired the architect Andrii Krauss. The complex on Bessarabka was conceived as a multipurpose building: the basement held warehouses and cheap apartments, the ground floor was given over to shops, and the second and third floors housed expensive apartments and the first-class Orion and Berlin hotels. After the revolution, the building repeatedly changed its function, serving at different times as a clinic and a dormitory. Its original commercial purpose was restored only at the end of the 20th century.

As the name suggests, the building was commissioned by the merchant Mykola Hryhorovych-Barskyi. However, at an early stage of the project he sold the plot to another merchant, Oleksandr Sirotkin, who actually built this "skyscraper." Sirotkin engaged the well-known architect Karl Shimon, who completed the building in 1902. The ground floor housed Maxim, one of the city's most popular confectioneries, while the upper floors held the Palermo furnished rooms. Later the building became the Leipzig Hotel. By the early 1990s its facade had fallen into complete disrepair, but it has since been restored.

This building was designed by the architect Mykola Yaskevych for yet another merchant, Mykola Samsonov, and built in 1900–1901. It was conceived as one more of Kyiv's commercial apartment buildings: the entire ground floor was occupied by various shops, and the rooms above were rented out. The building has seven stories.

This was the tallest building not only in Kyiv but in the entire Russian Empire of the early 20th century. It was built by the contractor Lev Ginzburg in 1910–1912 as a rental apartment building. It had 500 rooms, 94 of them luxury suites. After the revolution the building was nationalized and turned into a communal dormitory. On September 24, 1941, shortly after German forces occupied Kyiv, this architectural masterpiece was blown up by Soviet saboteurs. The building had 12 stories.

Chronologically, Lev Ginzburg built this building a little earlier, in 1900–1901. It was also an income property, with the first two floors given over to furniture stores. Its highlight was a richly decorated Renaissance Revival facade. In effect, the building served as an advertisement for Ginzburg's contracting company, which was considered the leading builder in Kyiv at the time. In 1941 the building was partially destroyed by an explosion; after the war it was partly rebuilt and restored. It is 46 meters tall including the spire, with six stories plus an attic floor.

Kyiv's skyline has, of course, changed dramatically since then, and modern towers have long since surpassed these early giants. As the city grows, so will its architecture. Who knows, perhaps one day Kyiv will have its own Burj Khalifa.