The Spire Building is Kharkiv’s most recent architectural landmark, based on the date of completion (1950–1967).
The building was designed by Kharkiv architect Petro Areshkin, whose portfolio includes the ‘Aquarena’ swimming pool, the FTINT building complex, the renovation of the Medical Institute, and others.
The building was originally constructed as a residential complex for engineers and management of Turbine Plant, Tractor Plant, and Chemical Plant.
The building was constructed by the Zhitlobud-2 trust.
Total height of the building – 65 metres.
As with many other buildings in the Socialist classicism style in Kharkiv, Ukrainian folk ornaments can be seen on the walls.
The ‘Tower’ with its spire comprises 11 storeys, each 4 metres high. The address of the main building with the spire is Constitution Square, 2/4. The wings on other streets have their own addresses.
The main wing is 7–8 storeys high. Until 2010, there was a huge bookshop on the ground floor.
In the 1960s, the final wing was built on the side facing Virmens’kyi Lane and Korolenka Lane.
Construction of the last wing began after the publication of the resolution ‘On the Elimination of Excesses in Design and Construction’, which is why it stands out from the overall style and appears more modest. It is clad in so-called ‘piglet tiles’. The ceiling heights are lower, so this wing ended up being 9 storeys high.
Interestingly, the main initiator of the fight against “architectural excesses” and socialist classicism style, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev, considered this very building to be Kharkiv’s calling card and one of the city’s finest landmarks.
The building’s inner courtyard is gated; however, the walls there are unadorned, with silicate bricks left unplastered and without tiles, and one can also see numerous ‘tsar balconies’ added by the residents in the 1990s.
In 2019, a sculpture of a caretaker was installed in the courtyard.
As a result of the missile strike on the Palace of Labour on March, 2 2022, the building lost many windows on the side facing Constitution Square.
