Ilarion Tomashevsky

Architect

Born on April 9, 1909, in Vladivostok, Russia; died in July 10, 1965, in Krasnoyarsk, USSR. Brother Andrey Pavlovich Tomashevsky (Andrew Tomas); wife Elizaveta Evgenievna née Vinokurova (m. 1939); son George (Yuri), b. 1937 in Shanghai.

Ilarion Tomashevsky was one of two sons of the Shanghai architect P. A. Tomashevsky, who killed himself in 1929; his mother died a year prior. The family moved from Russia to Harbin in 1922, and to Shanghai in 1924. Tomashevsky studied at College Municipal Français and attended drawing courses.

In 1927, he enrolled in a 4-year architecture and construction course run by Shanghai’s largest architectural firm Palmer and Turner. After his graduation in 1931 he was appointed head of the drafting and architecture department of Shanghai branch of the firm and later began to design and supervise building construction. He stayed with the Palmer and Turner for 14 years, frequently collaborating on projects with his friend and colleague V. N. Dronnikoff.

By his own admission, Tomashevsky worked on the construction of hotels, schools, residential buildings and factories; these include Metropole Hotel, Hamilton House, “Ewo Factory” (possibly, EWO Brewery?), and Ewo Cotton Mill (as chief architect).   

Aside from professional work, together with other Russian artists and poets, in 1935 Tomashevsky started funding and publishing the literary magazine Phoenix, which stayed in operation for 7 months. 

In 1939, while still at Palmer and Turner, Tomashevsky started to work as an independent architect and had his own studio. He was a passionate promoter of "midget apartments" – small apartment houses – and he created several of them in the French Concession. During the years 1939–1942, Tomashevsky designed and constructed ten buildings, including his own residence (a two-family townhouse) on Route Magniny.

He continued his collaboration with V. N. Dronnikoff, including such projects as Delastre Apartments, which is now the only building in Shanghai with a heritage plaque with both their names on it. The firm of A. V. Kooklin acted as general contractors for most of Tomashevsky's buildings.

During the Japanese occupation, the architect lived on his savings and in 1944 sold his house. In 1942–1943 he served as a treasurer of the Soviet Sports Club and consulted on the restoration of the Pushkin’s Monument. After the war he designed an added floor for the Soviet Consulate, on the Bund.

Together with his wife and son Tomashevsky repatriated to the USSR in August 1947, when Shanghai’s foreign community was dissolving. He settled in Krasnoyarsk, East Siberia and continued working as an architect; in 1953 he joined the Soviet Architects’ Union. Later in life he worked administrative jobs. Tomashevsky created a number of industrial and transportation-related buildings in the regional towns of Abakan, Krasnoyarsk, Chernogorsk and Chelyabinsk.