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Belopol’sky, Yakov (Borisovich)
(b Kiev, 6 May 1916; d Moscow, 5 May 1993). Russian architect and urban planner. He studied (1932–7) at the Institute of Architecture, Moscow, where he completed his diploma under Leonid Polyakov, who influenced him strongly. From 1937 to 1941 he worked under Boris Iofan, Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gel’freykh on the design (unexecuted) for the Palace of Soviets, Moscow. After World War II he designed, with the sculptor YEVGENY VUCHETICH, landscaped memorial parks for military cemeteries in Treptower Park (1946–9), Berlin, and Mamayev Hill (1963–7), Volgograd (for illustration see VOLGOGRAD). He worked thereafter mainly in the Yugo-Zapad district of Moscow on large housing schemes. These included projects (1952–6) under the chief architect of Moscow, Aleksandr Vlasov, and, as director of planning, the suburbs of Belyayevo-Bogorodskoye (from the 1960s), Tyoply Stan (1972) and Yasenevo (from 1975). In the latter spatial organization is characterized by the rhythmic effect of standardized prefabricated housing units, balanced by elements of emphasized relief. In the Circus Arena (1971), Vernadsky Prospect, Moscow, the unity of composition between the crater-shaped amphitheatre and the circular surrounding foyer is achieved by the placing of service rooms on a lower level. His later buildings include the 24-storey high-rise residential blocks (1979), Lenin Prospect, Moscow, where the vertical dimensions are dramatically articulated by transparent lift shafts and massive stairwells. The Palace of Youth Building (1982–8), Komsomol’sky Prospect, Moscow, has an oval hall contained within a trapezoidal ground-plan; its perimeter is formed of pylon ribs, recalling peripteral Classical temples. Between 1989 and 1992 he built a multi-purpose complex on Lenin Prospect, Moscow, ‘Park-City’, including 7–18-storey residential blocks and shopping arcades surrounding an atrium with metal and glass vaults.
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