The STaTe hermiTage muSeum annual reporT

maJor conSTrucTion and reSToraTion
reSulTS of The firST STage reSToraTion
of The eaSTern wing of The general STaff
Building
Since 2009 the eastern wing of the General Staff building,
which was handed over to the Hermitage Museum in 1988,
has been under restoration and restructuring designed
to adapt the building to museum designation in accordance
with the blueprints of Architectural Studio 44. The scale
of the work is commensurate with the considerable dimensions
of the building, which comprises over 800 rooms on
its four floors, dozens of staircases and a system of five connected
courtyards inside. The area of the first stage restoration
zone totals 35,500 sq. m, covering predominantly two
of the five courtyards located farthest from Palace Square
and Pevchesky (Singers’) Bridge.
In the course of the first stage of restoration work practically
all the brick walls of the building were reinforced by
means of injection technique or with metal ties. In rooms
with valuable finish the preservable old brick and wooden
ceilings were strengthened. One wall that could no longer
perform its supporting function was duplicated with
a monolith slab, the old brickwork remaining intact.
As part of the first stage all the essential external connection
work was performed for running water taps outside,
natural gas and water supply and sewerage. A new propane
heating system boiler was put into operation, as well as all
the vital utility systems required for the normal functioning
of the museum (such as lifts, air-conditioning, ventilation
and security systems). All the rooms were connected
to the systems of air-conditioning and climate control necessary
for proper preservation of artworks.
Out of the 45 halls covered by the first stage, 30 were in
need of multipronged restoration, during which great attention
was paid to the surviving elements of the interior
décor. In the first three halls the specialists carried out the
restoration of plafonds. Where possible, they conserved
what remained of the old painted decoration. In the
rooms with most of the painting lost, the restoration artists
reproduced the pictures with maximum accuracy on the
basis of analogy with their surviving parts. In the course of
restoration the outer walls in the courtyards were returned
their historical light gray colour of 1837.
As part of the first stage of the project specialists restored
26 stoves; in doing so, they carefully took down the tiles,
restored them and fitted them back after strengthening
the original brickwork. At present the stoves and fireplaces
perform a purely decorative role, for their smoke flues
were first cleaned and then filled with bricks.
The original doors and details of metal decorations were
restored in the Hermitage workshops; 150 windows were
reproduced according to their individual dimensions;
glued-laminated parquetry, window-panes and -sills were
restored. The stone plates on the steps of the stairways inside
the building were refurbished. In a number of rooms
the original ceilings, walls and door openings were covered
with metal casings.
The key element of the architectural project – the New
Large Enfilade – was built inside the inner courtyards
4 and 5, which alone gives an idea of the project scale.
The steps of the state amphitheatre-like stairway, faced
with Italian breccia Sarda limestone, lead to the fourteenmetre-wide
door opening on the enfilade of new exhibition
space. The gate-like door is veneered with oak wood;
the special coupling device enabling the door to open was
manufactured at the Kirov Works.
The illumination of the exhibition space of the New Large
Enfilade is provided by skylights. They are made of special
light-weight concrete, which minimized the load on the
major constructIon anD restoratIon
old walls. The roof of glass and metal is flat, which hides
it from outside.
The design of the New Large Enfilade is based on the alternation
of large exhibition halls and “hanging gardens” on
platforms that do not reach the original walls of the building.
The platforms are connected with the building floors
by small glass-capped bridges, which secure connection
between the buildings in Bolshaya Morskaya Street and
on the Moika Embankment. The conversion of the former
utility yards of the ministries into exhibition space made
it possible to increase the museum’s area from 21,000
to 32.5,000 sq. m. The yards were deepened; in the basements
and on the ground floor of building 4, cloakrooms
and technical service rooms were set up.
On 10 December 2010, during the Hermitage Days, a solemn
ceremony was held to mark the completion of the first
stage of the restoration of the eastern wing of the General
Staff building. In the presence of Valentina Matviyenko,
the Governor of St. Petersburg, a token key to the restored
sections of the General Staff building was handed over
to Dr. M. Piotrovsky, Hermitage Director, by Mr. V. Smirnov,
President of Intarsia group of companies that implemented
the project.
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