ArchDaily | Broadcasting Architecture Worldwide https://www.archdaily.com/ Sat, 4 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://assets.adsttc.com/doodles/archdaily-logo-feedly.svg 026CB6 https://www.archdaily.com/587275/why-putin-likes-columns-21st-century-russia-through-the-lens-of-architecture Thu, 15 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Dario Goodwin https://www.archdaily.com/587275/why-putin-likes-columns-21st-century-russia-through-the-lens-of-architecture In August 1932, Stalin, holidaying in Sochi, sent a memo containing his thoughts on the entries for the competition to design the Palace of the Soviets, the never-to-be-built monument to Lenin and center of government. In this memo he selected his preferred design, the colossal wedding cake of a tower topped with a 260-foot (79-meter) high statue of Lenin, designed by Boris Iofan. Just over 80 years later, Sochi again hosted the architectural whims of a powerful Russian leader for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. An oversimplification? Probably. But it’s got nice symmetry to it.

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