Viktor Matveevich Fromzel
Victor Matveevich (Avigder Mordukhovich) Fromzel was born in 1909 in Arkhangelsk. Following his studies at the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Engineering from 1927 to 1931, he studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He studied under several prominent Soviet Architects including Noi Abramovich Trotsky. In 1929, Fromzel, along with other students including Boris Rafailovich Rubanenko, won the design competition for the capital’s ZIL Palace of Culture. He began working at the Leonproekt Institute in 1934. Fromzel designed houses No. 2, 17, 25, 27a, 34, and 47 on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt. He was nominated for the Stalin Prize for house No. 2, which was built from 1949-1951 in the Stalinist neoclassicist style. In 1998, Fromzel received the title of Honored Architect of the Russian Federation. He died in St. Petersburg in 2001.