Nicolas Sokolovsky 

СОКОЛОВСКИЙ Николай Константинович (1897–1958). Русский текст – внизу страницы

Architect, artist, educator

Born 4 Dec 1897 in Ufa; died in 1958 in Tashkent, USSR. Married Olga Ivanovna Dmitrieff in 1923. His son Rostislav was born in Shanghai in January 1930.

Sokolovsky received his education at the Oriental Languages Department of St. Petersburg University. He also attended classes at the Architecture Academy, but did not graduate because he was drafted. Having fought in the First World War and the Russian civil war, he ended up in exile in Shanghai in 1924. Here he continued his architectural education at the International Correspondence School, obtaining the qualifications of the 1st Class architect. 

Sokolovsky’s total architectural output remains unknown, but partial information exists. 

After a stint as a construction supervisor at the architecture firm Leonard & Veysseyre (1926), he opened the studio N. C. Sokolovsky, with the headquarters at 283 Rue Bourgeat (later 78G Route Grouchy), and produced building designs, construction solutions, interior and furniture designs. In 1928, he designed the interior of the Prostoff & Co. shop on Avenue Joffre. He rebuilt and redesigned a residence at 306 Avenue Foch into a restaurant. In 1929, he was responsible for the interior design of the ballroom of the Hotel Tiny, built by his colleague Livin. He was the firm Algar and Co., together with his compatriot L. Gindper, when Northend Court apartments were erected on North Szechuen Road, in 1932–1933. In 1941, Sokolovsky rebuilt a row of commercial buildings on East Seward Road, destroyed by the Japanese air bombs in 1937. 

Sokolovsky was an active member of Russian art and literary circles, one of the founders of the Ponedelnik society, Russian artists' organization HLAM, a philosophy group, an Orientalists' society, etc. His paintings were frequently exhibited at Shanghai art shows. Among his published architectural projects there is a project of a Russian Orthodox church and a synagogue, as well as furniture designs. In 1938, the Russian Architects' Union in Prague entrusted him with organizing the China Russian Architects' Union.

Sokolovsky was an avid theoretician of architecture and art styles. His polemical letters appeared on the pages of Shanghai Russian- and English-language press. In 1925, he defended his colleagues Livin-Goldenstaedt and Zdanowitch's designs of Sun Yat-sen's memorial in Nanking, on the pages of The China Press. In 1935, he published an essay Philosophy of Architecture in Shanghai Zaria. In 1950, he was still in Shanghai, teaching architectural drawing and giving public lectures on perspective drawing. Toward the end of the decade, he was already in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (USSR), where he died in 1958.