1. Franz Schechtel was born to a family of ethnic German engineers in Saint Petersburg, the second of five children.
16 Facts About Fyodor Schechtel
1. 2.
Fyodor Schechtel's mother, born Daria Karlovna Zhegin, came from a family of Saratov merchants.
3.
Fyodor Schechtel is credited with building the first theater in Saratov.
4.
The Fyodor Schechtel family relocated to Saratov in 1865 to assist the ailing Franz Sr.
5.
In 1875 Fyodor Schechtel arrived in Moscow and attended architectural classes at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
6.
Fyodor Schechtel illustrated a book for Chekhov in 1886, who then recommended Fyodor Schechtel to other clients.
7.
Fyodor Schechtel's first own, undisputed building - Zinaida Morozova House in Spiridonovka Street, 1893, famous for Mikhail Vrubel artwork - is a mix of Gothic architecture and romanticism.
8.
Fyodor Schechtel's turn to Art Nouveau is associated with the 1900 Levenson Printshop in Trekhprudny Lane, in Patriarshy Ponds, a well-to-do neighborhood near Moscow's center.
9.
Patriarshy Ponds is still home to many of Fyodor Schechtel's works, including two of his own residences from 1896 and 1910.
10.
Fyodor Schechtel designed the Printshop to have Gothic trim, but changed his plan midway through construction.
11.
Unlike his rival Lev Kekushev, Fyodor Schechtel never committed himself to a single style.
12.
In 1909 Fyodor Schechtel won an open contest to construct Belokrinitskoe Soglasie church in Balakovo, financed by the Balakovo-based Maltsev brothers.
13.
In 1909 Fyodor Schechtel turned to Neoclassical Revival, building his own residence on the Garden Ring in strict Doric style.
14.
Fyodor Schechtel began taking more commissions outside Moscow, notably in Nizhny Novgorod, his hometown of Saratov, and Taganrog, including the neoclassical Chekhov Library in 1914.
15.
Fyodor Schechtel's last work before the revolution was a wooden tented church in the Moscow suburb of Solomennaya Storozhka, funded by the Tula Militia training camp.
16.
Fyodor Schechtel modelled the church on historical Olonetz area models.