А is for Architecture

A.Len stands for «Architectural Leningrad».

Sergey Oreshkin recalls:

"The name was first created as “Architectural Leningrad”, then it became “A.Len” due to legal issues. Almost immediately, a group of 7 architects and engineers from Lenremstroyproekt and a group from Kurortproekt joined. Then architects from LENNIIPROEKT and other institutes came too."

1991

Creation date of A.Len Architectural Bureau – March 28, 1991.
On September 6, 1991, Leningrad was officially renamed to St. Petersburg

Sergey Oreshkin:

“In the very beginning, as far back as 1989, a design department was created as within the RDC (Research and Development Center) under the Smolninsky District Komsomol Committee at 2 Bakunin Street, St Petersburg. I worked as the head of this department. Large projects started immediately: the administrative building of NPO Magneton at 9 Kurchatov Street, an experimental kindergarten in the Ukrainian city of Orzhev, Russia's first Volkswagen dealership in Vsevolozhsk and others. Then, in March 1991, the individual private enterprise A.Len was created on the basis of this department.”

The first 10 years

1991-1995

The first Volkswagen dealership in Russia in Vsevolozhsk, Leningrad Region

1993-2000

One of the first large cottage settlements in St. Petersburg “Russian Village” in Yukki settlement.

1997

Reconstruction of the Nevsky Line of the Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor in St Petersburg

1997

Reconstruction of the Alfa Bank head office on the Griboedov Canal, St Petersburg

Another story from a firsthand perspective:

“We opened our first office in the Kurortproekt Institute building, and three years later bought our own office at 14 Zakharyevskaya Street, where at that time we were engaged mainly in small projects: cottages and cottage settlements, retail pavilions, fuel stations, car services, reconstructions.
Gradually, the projects became larger and by 1995 we had become the main designer of elite and commercial projects in the Vsevolozhsk district of Leningrad Region.

Among the large projects of the 1990s were such landmark projects for St Petersburg as the reconstruction of the Gostiny Dvor on Nevsky Prospekt, the reconstruction of the Alfa Bank head office on the Griboedov Canal embankment near the Russian Museum on the corner with Italian Street”.

2001-2010

Over the course of ten years, A.Len has designed a number of elite residential buildings in the city’s historic center, and the Consular Village cottage settlement in Repino (St. Petersburg’s resort district):

2006

Egoist residential building on Vosstaniya St.

2006

Dom na Posadskoy project on Bolshaya Posadskaya St.

2006-2010

Crystals of Krestovsky residential complex on Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg. The complex consists of two separate buildings: Lazurite and Malachite.

2008

Aston Graftio residential complex in St. Petersburg

Sergey Oreshkin:

“A.Len has begun designing new projects on the aggradation territories of the Neva Bay, on the Gulf of Finland in St. Petersburg, starting with our ‘Marine Facade’ project. By 2010, Marine Terminals No. 1 and No. 2 (for cruise ships), the Port Control Center and the Customs Clearance Building had been constructed as part of the ensemble of buildings and structures of the St. Petersburg Marine Facade Passenger Port, and the port was opened to cruise ships.”

A.Len is becoming a leading designer of automobile dealership projects: Porsche on Savushkina St., Infinity on Shkolnaya St., Ford on Vyborgskoye Shosse and Prospekt Marshala Zhukova, and Levashovskoe Shosse, Nissan on Vyborgskoye Shosse, Toyota and Lexus on Pulkovskoe Shosse, and more – a total of around 50 projects.

2011 – 2020

Since the beginning of the 2010s, A.Len has been actively taking part in architectural competitions.

In 2011, Marine Passenger Terminal No. 3 (for ferries) and Marine Passenger Terminal No. 4 (for cruise ships) were constructed as part of the ensemble of buildings and structures of the St. Petersburg Marine Facade Passenger Port. A.Len carries out project support through maintenance of this facility of considerable importance to the city.

2017

“Hockey City” Sports Complex for SKA Ice Hockey Club, St. Petersburg

2018

Mercure Saransk Center for Accor Hotels, Saransk.

2016-2020

“Russia: Five Capitals” and “Russian Avant-Garde” residential complexes Voronezh.

A.Len continues to develop the aggradation territories in St. Petersburg: the residential complex project “I, Romantic ...” has been completed, and the Golden City project won an international competition for the development of an architectural and urban planning concept for integrated public housing on 15 hectares of land on Vasilyevsky Island.

A.Len projects won the Award of the Government of St. Petersburg and the Award of the Head of the Republic of Mordovia.

The locations of hotels and hostels based on A.Len projects are diversifying. Our clients include ACCOR HOTELS (Saransk), RADISSON HOTEL GROUP (Radisson Blu, Park Inn Hotels), CARLSON REZIDOR HOTEL GROUP (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yaroslavl, Kazan, Ufa, Voronezh), HILTON WORLDWIDE (Perm, Yekaterinburg, Surgut) and more.

The motto of the decade was: “Pure architecture without losing individuality plus a little of naivety.”