Alexander Zelenko

Alexander Ustinovich Zelenko
Born	October 11, 1871 Saint Petersburg
Died	July 21, 1953 Moscow
Nationality	Russian
Occupation	Architect
Practice	Own practice
Buildings	Art Nouveau mansions in Samara, 1899-1903 Communal Club for working children in Moscow, 1907

Alexander Ustinovich Zelenko (Russian: Александр Устинович Зеленко; 1871–1953), was a Russian and Soviet architect and educator, a pioneer in settlement movement and vocational education. Originally a practitioner of provincial Art Nouveau in Samara and Moscow, he later joined the camp of rationalists and focused on perfecting school and museum designs.

Alexander Zelenko grew up in a family of Saint Petersburg Medical Academy professor. He trained first in Cadet Corps, graduated from Saint Petersburg Civil Engineers Institute in 1892, trained in Vienna and in Fyodor Shekhtel's firm in Moscow.

Zelenko relocated to Samara, bringing Art Nouveau to this Volga town. For a while, he enjoyed steady flow of commissions and the title of Town Architect (1899-1900). Later, he taught in graphic arts in Moscow, travelled to United States in 1903-1904; in this period, Zelenko switched from architectural practice to education.

In 1905 Zelenko joined educators Stanislav Shatsky and Louise Shleger on their Summer Labor Commune project in Shchyolkovo, then on Russia's first club for the children. Next year, they set up state-funded Settlement Society for training and professional education. Funded by industrialist Nikolay Krotov, Zelenko designed and built extant Communal Club for the Children in Moscow (completed 1907, Vadkovsky Lane, 5). The castle-like expressionist structure, designed as "inhabitable sculpture", is sometimes compared to Gaudi and Hundertwasser. This club looked after the working teenagers of Moscow's blue-collar North End, and was part of a larger effort to create a new social and educational center in then remote part of Tverskoy and Meshchansky Districts.

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