Wladimir Fedoroff

Architect, engineer

Born on October 6, 1880, in Elisavetgrad; the date of death is unknown.

Between 1906 and 1916, W. A. Fedoroff (发特落夫), created more than 200 buildings in Vladivostok and vicinity. His commissions were made possible by the patronage of his father-in-law, a renowned Russian architect Nicolay Dmitrieff. Fedoroff’s first wife Eudokia divorced him in 1914 to marry the Hungarian architect C. H. Gonda. In late 1919, the couple moved to Shanghai together with Fedoroff’s two sons, adopted by Gonda. Fedoroff had a brief second marriage and eventually made his way to Shanghai too.

According to his son, Fedoroff was socially graceful and outgoing, “obsessed with travel, wilderness, hunting and Oriental art, which he avidly collected”. Described as a “a tall, handsome dandy with a well-trained moustache and a considerable charm,” Fedoroff remains something of a mystery. There is missing information about his Shanghai career as well as about what happened to him. 

At one point, Fedoroff joined Calatroni & Hsieh. Besides being the creators of Sun Court and Apartments on Weihaiwei Road, the company was responsible for the Burlington Court at Tsongchow Road (1934), Jubilee Court and Apartments between Avenue Joffre and Rue Lafayette (1935), foreign residences on Route Vallon, a three-story foreign residence on Medhurst Road, and other buildings.

In 1934, W. A. Fedoroff designed Dufour Apartments, on Route Dufour, for Asia Realty Co.. The six-story building had ten 3-, 4- and 5-room apartments and one “bungalow studio apartment situated on the roof”. The apartment house cost 90,000 taels to build and was marketed for foreign families wishing to be in the vicinity of the American School.

In 1935–1936, Fedoroff worked as an architect at Hall & Hall ("Engineers, architects, land and estate agents"). He was on the supervising committee for the construction of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral (1936). In 1940 he was an architect at G. A. Kirlian's real estate firm.