Ilarion Tomashevsky

Born on April 9, 1909, in Vladivostok, Russia; died in 1970 in Krasnoyarsk, USSR.

Ilarion Tomashevsky was one of two sons of the Shanghai architect P. A. Tomashevsky, who killed himself in 1929. At that time 20-year-old Ilarion was already working as an architect at the largest local firm Palmer & Turner. He stayed with the firm until at least 1941, working alongside his friend and colleague V. N. Dronnikoff.

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

Tomashevsky was a passionate promoter of "midget apartments" – small apartment houses – and he created at least five of them in the French Concession around the years 1939–1942; he also built his own residence on Route Magniny. He collaborated with V. N. Dronnikoff on his projects, such as Delastre Apartments, which is now the only building that has the heritage plaque with both their names on it. The general contractors for most of Tomashevsky's buildings was the firm of A. V. Kooklin.

Tomashevsky lived in Shanghai until at least 1948, and then repatriated to the USSR and settled in Krasnoyarsk, East Siberia. He continued working as an architect, joining the Soviet Architects' Union in 1953. He created a number of industrial and transport-related buildings in the towns around the region (Abakan, Krasnoyarsk, Chernogorsk and Cheliabinsk).