Writers' House (Tashkent City Party Committee Building)

In the mid-1930s, Tashkent architects were searching for a foundation on which to build the new capital: some adhered to constructivism, others drew motifs from Uzbek folk architecture, and still others turned to the classics. V. Volchek and A. Larionov chose the classics and adopted them almost literally. The city party committee building at the corner of Revolution Square and Pushkinskaya Street, built by 1938, was made using examples of European classicism. The ground floor is rusticated, while the second and third floors are united by pilasters. In the middle of the main facade, a portico projects: it stands on the ground floor arcade, and four colossal order columns support a high pediment. Architectural historian Shukur Askarov believed that the architects were given a hint by their neighbor, the 1895 bank building in the same classical spirit. After the war, the building became part of the square's framework. In 1947, the neighboring People's Commissariat of Trade was extended with a second floor, and together they connected the square with Pushkinskaya Street. The city committee remained here at least until the late 1950s. The Writers' Union of Uzbekistan moved from place to place during those same years and by 1968 had settled at 1 Pushkinskaya Street. By 1972, the building was simply captioned in books as the "Writers' House in Tashkent." In 1978, it was written that one of Tashkent's most beautiful streets begins with this building. A marble plaque hung on the wall: the street was named Pushkinskaya in 1899, the year of the poet's centenary. Today, Pushkinskaya is Mustakillik Avenue, and by 2009 a bank was operating in the former city committee and writers' building.