16 Facts About Roman Klein

Roman Ivanovich Klein, born Robert Julius Klein was a Russian architect and educator, best known for his Neoclassical Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

Roman Klein was born in Moscow into a German merchant family of Ivan Makarovich Klein.

Roman Klein trained at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, with Vladimir Sherwood on the construction site of State Historical Museum, and at the Imperial Academy of Arts, winning a study tour to Italy and France, where he assisted Charles Garnier in preparation to the Exposition Universelle.

Roman Klein returned to Moscow in 1885, worked as junior architect at local firms and went independent in 1888.

The public contest of 1896, managed by Moscow State University, awarded first prize to Pyotr Boytsov; Roman Klein used Boytsov's general layout but the exterior and interior styling is Roman Klein's own, undisputed work.

Roman Klein had studied the latest forms of museum construction in Europe, and he built a temple to the arts that expressed civic pride and private patronage, thus pleasing his benefactor, Nechaev-Maltsov, and creating what Lukomskii would have called approvingly a "European" building, noticeably different from the public and commercial buildings whose neoclassicism derived from the local Empire style.

Roman Klein employed Vladimir Shukhov for structural engineering of ceilings and sunroofs, Ivan Rerberg and other younger architects.

Roman Klein was in high demand among Moscow businessmen expanding their retail and warehouse facilities.

Roman Klein completed such high-profile buildings like Neo-Gothic TsUM department store in Petrovka Street and pseudo-Russian Middle Trade Rows in Kitai-gorod.

Roman Klein completed a number of banks and office blocks in Kitai-gorod and other districts of Moscow.

Less known is his prodigious input to industrial architecture; Roman Klein was the house architect for Moscow industrialists like Giroud, Huebner and Gougon.

Roman Klein designed numerous Orthodox, Lutheran and Catholic churches in Moscow and other cities and supervised construction of Moscow Choral Synagogue.

Roman Klein had his limitations, but his immense academic background and drawing skills allowed him to imitate styles like Victorian architecture or Russian Revival.

Roman Klein treated these internships as his own educational work, not just hiring labor.

Roman Klein took part in the architectural competitions of the early 1920s, side by side with the new generation of avant-garde architects.

Roman Klein died in 1924 and is interred at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Lefortovo District.