The building at number 10/2 at the intersection of Honcharivskyi Boulevard is an architectural monument of local importance, which, after the first owner of the building, is called the Printing House of S.P. Yakovlev. Since the very beginning, it was built as a printing house in 1898, and after the completion of construction, it was rented by S.P. Yakovlev. It is currently unknown who exactly was its architect. At that time, in the Printing House of S.P. Yakovlev, there were about 15 high-speed typographic machines, but during the civil war they were destroyed, and the printing house in a dilapidated state served the Southern and Donetsk Railways.
The Printing House of S.P. Yakovlev was built in an eclectic "brick" style in a pleasant warm brown color of the famous red Kharkiv brick. "Brick style" is a conventional designation of the architecture of buildings of the era of historicism at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The "brick style" is characterized by unpainted brick decor and Gothic elements. Many Kharkiv buildings of this style made of high-quality bricks have been well preserved. In this style, a fire station was built (25 Kvitkinska Street; built in 1884 according to the project of architect G. Stryzhevskyi. In 2022, the building was seriously damaged as a result of Russian shelling). Other examples of this style are a pawn shop building (Universitetska Street, 5; built according to the project of architect B. M. Kornienko in 1908), the mansion of M. I. Zubovska (Darvin Street, 25; built in 1887 according to the project of the architect A. M. Thomson) and many other buildings.
On the facade of the Printing House, facing the street, you can see elements of industrial modernism. In general, the red brick masonry of the Printing House building is characteristic of the industrial Kharkiv modern style, which was a response to the industrial boom that swept the city at that time. In the middle of the 19th century, two main directions were distinguished in the architectural development of Kharkiv. The first was to replace old structures in the city center with new, larger, and multi-story buildings. The second direction focused on the implementation of architecture in the Modern style, which applied both to the central and to the territories adjacent to the city, providing them with new architectural objects and solving the problem of insufficient construction. The Printing House of S.P. Yakovlev building relates to this second direction.
The features of these buildings should also include progressive engineering innovations at that time, such as cast iron structures, which are the load-bearing support structures in the building of the Printing House. Thus, in the decoration of the premises, cast-iron columns made in the style of Eastern European cast-iron products of the middle of the 19th century have remained in their original authentic form.
Columns of the same type have been preserved in the neighboring Zalopansky District on Blahovishchenska Street, in a building now called Fabrika Space, which was also built in the Kharkiv Industrial Modern style. Some columns on the first floor of the Printing House of S.P. Yakovlev (for example, column № 1), located in the shop, were closed with new metal structures that support the ceiling.
Also, the Printing house building, in full accordance with its eclectic character (which we mentioned above), is one of the unforgettable examples of Kharkiv red-brick neo-Gothic, a direction in architecture that combines Gothic elements with classicist compositions. In Kharkiv, architectural forms and decorative motifs of Western European medieval architecture were used in the eclecticism of the "brick style". Red-brick neo-Gothic architecture was created as a result of the industrial revolution, as the embodiment of time and the spirit of change, liberalism, and freedom of speech. Rejection of plaster is a kind of freedom of thought embodied in an architectural decision. The printing press at that time is perhaps the most vivid image of education and people's desire for knowledge.
The printing house was originally two-story, which, in general, was also a characteristic of the historical districts of Kharkiv. It had a ground floor in a separate part of the building on Velyka Honcharivska Street. In plan, the building of the Printing House resembles the letter "G" with an enfilade-corridor type planning scheme; that is, it represents the arrangement of rooms one after the other, united by a through corridor. The facades along Velyka Honcharivska and Honcharivskyi Boulevard are metrically divided by protruding pylons, between which are placed half-arched windows with blades - vertical flat protrusions that have a constructive significance, as they thicken the wall where additional load falls on it.
In the 1930s, another one was added above the two floors, with the addition of an attic space between the new third floor and the roof of the building. This meant the "second life" of the Printing House - its restoration: it was completely restarted and equipped with a freight elevator. In the post-war years, technical and storage facilities were added to the printing house, located along the boundary of the site, forming a closed yard space.
The spatial planning scheme of the attraction is divided into an administrative and economic block with a central staircase connected by a front entrance on Velyka Honcharivska Street, and shop premises with access to courtyard technical buildings.
Analyzing the elements of the remaining entrance groups, we assume that the projecting 3-story element of the building on the courtyard facade served as a staircase between the floors, where workshops with equipment were located. The passage from the end of the building to the shop on the first floor of Honcharivskyi Boulevard, which was closed by technical rooms in post-war times, is also traced.
The building of the Printing House of S.P. Yakovlev has the potential to become a mediator, a topos that will connect the active urban space around the station and the recreational space of the river embankment. The building of the printing house, thus, is an important historical site, which is located on the border of two functional areas, and at the same time can be in some way a connection between the old classical buildings and new areas on the territory of the former industrial development.
