For decades, the building at Poltavskyi Shliakh Street, 35, which once belonged to the “Triangle” Russian-American Rubber Manufacturing Trading Partnership, was falling into ruin and decaying, slowly and inevitably.

Once upon a time, a company with a massive main factory in St. Petersburg supplied half of Europe with galoshes and tires… The building housing the “Treiugolnik” (Triangle) company’s representative office in Kharkiv was built in 1901 based on a design by architect Zdislaw Harmanski.

In 1985, the building burned down, and the sculptures on the facade of the empty building gazed lonely at passersby. And now, in 2016, the building’s restoration was completed, although its bas-reliefs and sculptural details have been simplified (in some places, significantly). It now serves as a multi-unit residential building.

For reference, here are some photos of the same house from 2006; back then, it seemed there was no hope.

But it’s important to remember that there’s always hope. Any historic building can be restored—it’s just a matter of whether the developer has the desire and the resources to do so.