Ela Levina

Architect

Alla Vronskaya, last edited on 03.05.2022

Name:

Ela Levina / Bel: Эла Пінхасаўна (Пятроўна) Левіна / Rus: Элла Пинхосовна (Петровна) Левина

Life Dates:

1927 – 2003

Country:

Employers:

Beldzayrzhpraekt

Minskpraekt

Field of expertise:

Architectural design, urban planning

Education:

Kyiv Institute of Engineering and Construction (1950)

Awards:

Distinguished architect of Belarus, 1991

Short Biography and Work

Born into a Jewish family, Levina graduated in architecture from Kyiv Institute of Engineering and Construction in 1950. She worked at Beldzayrzhpraekt between 1953 and 1961, subsequently moving to Minskpraekt, where she remained until her death in 2003. At Minskpraekt, she rose to the head of design group and subsequently to project head. She was awarded the title of a distinguished architect of Belarus in 1991.

At Beldzayrzhpraekt, she worked on series of typified residential buildings 1-433 and 1-434. At Minskpraekt, she participated in the design of series of brick and block apartment buildings MK-5 and MK-9 (1970). She also designed high-rise brick residential buildings of the Belarusian State University on Masherov Avenue (1962-1967), and a number of other residential buildings in Minsk. Her most celebrated projects were shopping and community centers Vilnius (1975) and Zyaleny Lug 5 (1978) as well as the planning of microdistricts Zyaleny Lug 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 (1960-1970, 1982, 1984). The design of Zyaleny Lug 5, which skillfully used local topography and included landscape architecture, received several republican and central awards.

Fig. 1: Zyaleny Lug microdistrict, Minsk. Architects Ela Levina, L. Sokolva, A. Shelyakin, 1964
Fig. 2: Shopping and Community Center at Zyaleny Lug miscrodistrict, Minsk. Architect Ela Levina
Fig. 3: Building type MK-5. Architects Ela Levina, N. Shpigelman, D. Kudryavtsev, 1966
Fig. 4: Building type MK-9 (modification of MK with increased height). Constructed in Minsk and Grodno in the 1960s and 1970s. Architect Ela Levina and others
Fig. 5: Vilnius movie theater, Minsk. Architect Ela Levina, 1975
Figs. 6-13: Zyaleny Lug miscrodistrict. Architect Ela Levina, 1978
Fig. 14: Airport square, Minsk. Planning by G. Zaborsky, residential buildings by Ela Levina (architect) and S. Livshits (engineer), 1963.
Fig. 15: Jakub Kolas street. Perspective. Minskpraekt (architects Ela Levina, L. Sokolova, A. Shelyakin).