Academician of the Academy of Architecture of the USSR, People's Architect of the USSR
Tamanyan was born on March 4, 1878, in Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar). He received his secondary education at the local school. In 1898, he entered the architecture class of the higher art school attached to the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1904 with the qualification of an architect-painter. During his studies, Al. Tamanyan was sent to study and measure the monuments of Russian classical architecture in St. Petersburg and Moscow by the Academy many times.
Al. Tamanyan's first independent work (1906) is related to the reconstruction project of the Armenian Church in St. Petersburg, built at the end of the 18th century by architect Yu. Felten, the implementation of which demonstrated the qualities of the author as a conscientious researcher, as well as his extremely refined taste and deep knowledge of classical architecture.
Al. Tamanyan's creative and construction talent was especially expressed in the co-construction of the Yarnslavl fair, Count V. Kochubey Mansion, and S. Shcherbatov's residential house. The last one brought the author a gold medal and great fame. In 1914, Al. Tamanyan was elected academician of architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts, and in 1917, president of the same academy.
In 1918, Al. Tamanyan came to Armenia and was appointed the chair of the Department of the Chief Architect of the Republic of Armenia, the Antiquities and Fine Arts Preservation Committee, as well as the Construction Committee for the construction of state institutions. He held all these positions even after the establishment of the power of the Bolsheviks (from December 2, 1920 to February 18, 1921). After the February uprising, on April 22, he left for Persia and settled in Tabriz, where together with artist H. Kojoyan, he opened an art studio. He was invited to work as an architect by the Municipality of Tabriz.
There, he designed a number of individual houses and public buildings and actively participated in the construction of the city. After the repeated invitations of the Bolshevik government of Armenia, Al. Tamanyan returned to Armenia in March 1923. In the first years of his activity in Yerevan, Al. Tamanyan designed and built several buildings (national library, physiotherapy institute, etc.) in the architectural style of the Italian Renaissance period. During these same years, he was also involved in the study of Armenian architecture and the preservation of monuments.
Studying Tekor, Zvartnots, Ani, and other historical monuments and examples of folk architecture, Al. Tamanyan was able to find the method of their use in modern conditions. He never repeated the old, but he did not reject it, building a historical bridge between the past culture of the Armenian people and the new one. Taking advantage of Tekor's and Zvartnots' architectural volume-spatial compositional solutions and patterning patterns, staying away from mechanical imitation, he created the architectural colonnades of the Government House and the Opera House, their unique plan and volume compositions.
Al. Tamanyan revived the art of Armenian ornamental sculpture, giving it new content.
Always concerned with creating high-quality design and construction staff, he also taught architectural design classes at YSU Technical Faculty.
The greatest manifestation of Tamanyan's architectural genius was and remains the creation of the Yerevan master plan, the work started before 1923 and continued until the end of his life.
The Government House was built according to his design, for which the outstanding architect was posthumously awarded the USSR State Prize in 1942. The Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater project won the Great Gold Medal at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. Under the influence of Tamanyan's works, a Tamanyan architectural school was created in Armenia. Al is invaluable. The significance of Tamanyan's work in the formation and development of modern Armenian architecture.
In 1926, Al. Tamanyan was awarded the title of People's Architect of the ASSR.
Al. Tamanyan passed away on February 20, 1936, in Yerevan.
