🏛 Foreign Ministry skyscraper on Smolenskaya

The Stalinist Foreign Ministry skyscraper on Smolenskaya Square, 172 m tall, with a spire and the Soviet coat of arms.

The skyscraper was built in 1948–1953, designed by Vladimir Gelfreikh and Mikhail Minkus, for the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The building is 172 metres tall, with 27 floors in the central part.
The spire was added at the last moment on Stalin's orders; it is decorative, made of steel sheets, because the building could not have supported a stone superstructure.
It is the only one of the seven Stalinist skyscrapers without a star on its spire.
On the facade at a height of 114 m is a reinforced-concrete Soviet coat of arms of about 144 m².
In 2016–2017 the old spire was dismantled and a new one put up, almost identical in appearance but 100 tonnes lighter.

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