User:ToriTrouble/Architecture of Baku

Oil Boom (1880-1920)
Further Information: Black City (Baku), Petroleum industry in Azerbaijan

Urban Development
With the boom of the oil industry in Baku and Azerbaijan in general came the great influx of both foreign western cash and ideas. Eclectic architecture fusing not only east and west, but western styles as well became prevalent in the architecture found in the city outside the medieval walls. Local oil industrialists also had the opportunity to travel, particularly to Europe, where they came back with ideas of the European architectural styles, and had both the want and the capital to recreate them. In a stark contrast to the heavily industrialized "Black City" of the eastern side of Baku, the opposite side of the city saw the heavy development of the "White City." They differed in their urban patterns as well: the Black city has very a very dense, orthogonal block structure, and the White city had a sprawling, more flexible structure, originally meant for industrial adaptation.

What had started as an oil boom in Baku soon turned to a construction one with the quick and massive influx of capital to the city. Contemporaries commented on how fast the city developed, a sleepy Persian town to a thriving metropolis in only a decade. The city's population grew rapidly, at a rate faster than contemporary New York. The foreign population started to exceed that of the local Azeri's, and with it came western influence in construction. One interesting note of the way that the previously undeveloped areas developed was due to the fast intensity of development under the oil boom. Development not only extended horizontally, but vertically as well. Most of the construction was made using the local limestone quarried near the city, and the first few layers of development tended to be of vaulted masonry, meant to be structurally strong enough to develop additional stories on top later on. It was an architecture characteristic of that of an oil boomtown, one that was meant to be adapted and added to with the next boom. A side product of this rapid development, however, was un regulation in proper city planning, something which was also complained about. There was a lack of proper street planning, lighting planning, transportation systems, and sanitary arrangements.

In a second cycle of construction, oil industrialists who had made their fortunes in the 1870s and 80s would develop the area between the medieval walled city and the Black City in the 1890s and early 1900s, creating the metropolitan Baku that would be nicknamed the "Paris of the Caspian." They would model the area after the great European cities of the time, with wide canopied boulevards, a seaside esplanade, monumental civic buildings, and all the new technologies in communication and transportation. The oil barons competed with each other to donate the most lavish and monumental civic buildings, but the initial construction was spearheaded by Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev (1823?-1924), one of the most philanthropic of the industrialists. The first Azerbaijani National Theater was founded in 1873, as well as another theater built in 1882. Parks and educational centers such as vocational schools were given great importance during this time, including Baku's first school for Muslim girls in 1910, designed by Josef Goslavsky. Soon more of the wealthy industrialists followed and competed in a philanthropic battle of donating towards the development of the city, such as Musa Naghiyev and Shamsi Asadullaev. Many of the hallmarks of a thriving cosmopolitan city were constructed during this time. The Baku City Duma was built from 1900-1904, also designed by Goslavsky in an Italianate renaissance style on the northern edge of the medieval walled city.

Oil Baron Mansions
As well as competing between each other in philanthropic purposes, the oil industrialists of the 1880s, 90s, and early 1900s would compete with each other to build the most lavish mansions in the new residential quarters they created. They imported architects as well as style preferences from their travels to Europe, and sought to emulate the grand urban palaces they saw for themselves in Baku. These mansions would become emblematic of the distinct architectural style of pre-Soviet Baku, a fusion of east and western styles.

It started as an importing of purely Western styles, in some cases an almost exact copy, created from modified plans of a European palace. Such is the former residence of Murtuza Mukhtarov, built for his wife after she liked a French gothic palace they visited. Mukhtarov would obtain the plans, hired the polish architect I. K. Ploshko to modify the plans, and built in 1911-1912. After invasion by the Red Army it was converted to a "wedding palace," a purpose to which it still serves today.

Another example of the oil baron mansion architecture would be the Hajinski residence (1912). It is of an eclectic European style, designed with differing motifs, and with two facades in two almost completely different styles.

The Taghiyev residence (1895-1902) is another example of the western style in the architecture, designed by the polish architect Goslavsky in the Italianate renaissance style he was known for. It is known for its heavily decorated interior, with a gilded main gallery on the second floor. It was converted to the National Museum of History of Azerbaijan under the soviets, and the limestone chiseled "T" for Taghiyev is still visible in the facade, a bad job in trying to remove it by the Soviets.

Construction of such buildings in Baku remained largely using the limestone available locally, with other materials easily brought down the Volga and through the city port. Unlike their European and Russian counterparts, however, they were not covered in Stucco because of the local climate.