The State Hermitage Museum - The Eastern Wing of the General Staff Building (Saint Petersburg)

 listed building / architectural heritage, 1830s construction, Second Empire (architecture), art museum / art gallery, historical building, museum of modern and contemporary art

The State Hermitage Museum at the Eastern Wing of the General Staff Building.
Art collections of XIX - XXI centuries.

In 1988, the Eastern Wing of the former General Staff Building, erected in the 1820s-1830s according to a design by the architect C.I. Rossi, was transferred into the ownership of the State Hermitage. In 2004, as a result of the combined efforts of the State Hermitage, the RF Ministry of Culture and the Government of the Russian Federation, a Loan Agreement was signed with the World Bank for the purposes of implementing the project: "Economic Development of St. Petersburg." Emerging as the key restoration site under the project was the General Staff Building.

In 2003-2008, the St. Petersburg-based Architectural Bureau "Studio 44" prepared a design to transform the historic ministry building into a 21st Century museum complex. The architectural design, tentatively dubbed the "New Grand Enfilade," is anchored by the iconic lines of the historic Hermitage: its enfilade structures, parallel perspectives and expansive exhibition spaces, all illuminated by dome lighting. The revival of these principles at this new stage in the development of the Hermitage ensures cultural continuity and commonality between the lines of the old and new museum.

The "New Grand Enfilade" consists of a procession of large exposition halls built-in to the transverse blocks of the General Staff Building, interspersed with free-standing platforms not anchored to the walls of the historic blocks. The main area of the permanent exposition at the General Staff Building will be housed in three enfilades running along the perimeter of the building. For large-scale temporary exhibitions, three halls have been incorporated into the design, featuring 12-meter ceilings and skylights. The unique engineering of the skylights will make it possible to provide significant natural lighting to highlight painting canvasses. The architectural design of the exhibition halls envisions a high degree of exposition-space transformability: various options for the opening and closing of collapsible doors and walls make it possible to flexibly adjust the exposition, as well as to isolate each of the hall-modules and integrate them again into enfilade.

The enfilade of the Eastern Wing of the General Staff Building is not straight but tapered, with a descending line, as originally intended in the planning of the building, wedging into Palace Square. As a rule, museum visits will commence from the New Grand Enfilade. Admittance here will be gained by the tiered parade stairwells from the two entrance vestibules located in the first and fifth courtyards.

Based on the outcome of the 2008 tender, bringing the intricate architectural design to life was tasked to INTARSIA Group. Restoration work on the Eastern Wing of the General Staff Building was complicated by the fact that its function had undergone so many dramatic changes in the 20th Century, with individual areas rearranged and redesigned. The building was frequently restored in the wake of fire. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), The General Staff Building was subjected to frequent shelling, sustaining heavy damages. By the time work commenced in 2008, the building was in a state of serious disarray, with its roof leaking and walls soaked.

Before proceeding with the primary work, specialists needed additional studies and surveys. Structural inspections have been conducted of the walls and enclosures, foundations and basements, and beam and engineering systems, and geological-engineering surveys have been performed. Preliminary work also included test stripping of the walls and plafonds, bore-hole exploration and sounding, historical-archival research and expert analysis of the historic parquet floors.

Insofar as the General Staff Building was erected along the Moyka River Embankment, additional samples were taken of the water, and its aggressive impact on the cement slabs of the foundation was established. In this connection, the specialists developed new types of waterproofing that made it possible to protect the foundation of the building, and new supports were created for the old building that prevent the foundation from shifting or sinking into the layers of subsoil. During the course of work, specialists discovered that the building had been penetrated by underground water (soft ground) formed by the waters of the Moyka River: with the help of a cement-based solution, the soil under the building was reinforced, and a membrane was created to isolate the foundation from the soft ground.

In certain areas, wooden enclosures were replaced with reinforced concrete structures, and builders reinforced one load-bearing wall with a new brick wall, preserving the historic structure. The roofs and beam system were completely replaced.

The intricate facades, distinct for their abundance and variety of decorative elements, rendered using a wide array of materials, required the appropriate types of restoration: restoration of the fireplace, stucco work, plastering and gilding. During the course of restoration work, the inner courtyards were returned to their original color: light-grey, as it was in 1837 (in Soviet times, the facade color was yellow).

Full-scope restoration work was required for the interior finishings of the building. The monumental painting of the General Staff Building, rendered by world-class masters - Scotti, Vigi, Toricelli, and the Dadonov brothers, have survived on the ceilings, walls, and hearths, although its restoration was complicated by the most recent touch-ups, which led to peeling paint and crumbling plaster. For the 26 halls with historic decorative painting, the specialists developed individual methods of restoration work. Thus, for instance, one of the halls, which had once housed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, despite its historic name the "Blue Hall," had taken on a yellowish-brown hue. Following the removal of the later layers of paint, the art-restorers returned the plafond to its original blue tones. Stripping work in one of the halls of the Ministry of Finance revealed the traces of a pictorial frieze. Following additional archival research, the frieze was fully restored.

During stripping work in two rooms on the fourth floor, specialists managed to discover a previously-unknown painting on the ceiling dating to the first thirty years of the 19th Century, just 20% preserved from its original scale, which was insufficient to fully restore the artistic decor of the space. In order to preserve the unique discovery, depictions of green griffons from one hall and ornamental fragments of another hall were removed from the ceiling and restored for further museum preservation.

In need of thorough restoration were the original doors, door frames and the finer details of metal decor. They were removed and taken to the shop, where specialists did everything in their power to restore them to their original appearance. The doors were restored to their "French lacquer" finishing using bygone technology, which resulted in an ivory effect.

In 2014, the Eastern Wing of the General Staff Building is scheduled to be augmented with a new museum complex of the State Hermitage, intended for the display of works of art of the 19th-21st Centuries.