V. Gel'freykh was born on March 24, 1885, in
Saint Petersburg in the family of a civil servant. He graduated from the real school, and studied in private drawing school for two years. In 1906 he entered the Architectural Department of the
Imperial Academy of Arts, which he graduated with honours in 1914, having completed the thesis project of the building of the State Council under the supervision of Professor
Leon Benois. Even while studying at the academy, he started to work in the studio of Academician
Vladimir Shchuko, who had a significant influence on the further creative path of Gel'freykh. Beginning in 1918, Gel'freykh was the permanent co-author of Vladimir Shchuko; their cooperation continued until the death of Shchuko in 1939. The first cooperation work of architects after the
October Revolution was the design and construction in 1922—1923 of the pavilions of the Foreign Department of the Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Exhibition in Moscow. During the 1920s, architects were working on projects in Petrograd – Leningrad – Smolny Propylaea, the monuments of
Vladimir Lenin (near the
Trinity Bridge, the Revolution Bridge and the
Finland Station), the Moscow-Narva Culture House. Shchuko and Gel'freykh took part in a number of competitions, including the draft of the Soviet pavilion at the
International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, the project of the Ukrainian industrial building in
Kharkiv, the Palace of Labour in
Ivanovo, the House of Councils in
Tula, and several others. In 1918—1935 Gel'freykh taught in the Leningrad Higher Artistic-Technical Institute (Russian ВХУТЕИН – Высший художественно-технический институт). He taught in the
Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry (1959–1967). Since 1935, the architect actively participated in the
General Plan for the Reconstruction of Moscow, he developed a version of the layout of the south-west of Moscow (1935–1937). His significant work during the war years were the constructions of the third stage of the
Moscow Metro — the ground vestibule and the platform of the
Elektrozavodskaya station (the project of 1938, opened in 1944, co-author Igor Rozhin), the ground vestibule of
Novokuznetskaya station (1943). Gel'freykh created the project of the platform of the station "Botanical Garden" (now "
Prospekt Mira", 1949, co-author Michail Minkus, sculptor Georgy Motovilov); the project of the
Pantheon – the Monument to the Eternal Glory of the Great People of the Soviet Land on the Lenin Hills (1954, co-author Michail Minkus, competition). In 1957—1958 Vladimir Gel'freykh took part in architectural competitions for the project of the
Palace of the Soviets on the Lenin Hills (co-author Mikhail Minkus). In the 1950s he developed a project for the reconstruction of the
Smolenskaya Square (together with Pavel Shteller, Viktor Lebedev, with the participation of V. Zhadovskaya and A. Kuzmin). Died August 7, 1967, in Moscow, buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery (site number 7). == Projects and buildings ==