Internationally renowned structural engineers and architects are calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to save from demolition Moscow’s iconic Shukhov radio tower. Designed by Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov, who is credited with developing the hyperbolic-tower concept, the 92-year-old steelwork structure is “one of the superlative engineering feats of the twentieth century,” the engineers and architects assert in an open letter to the Russian strongman.
Completed in 1922, the single-skin lattice tower rises 148.5 meters from its 40-m-dia circular foundation; it is topped by a flagpole that raises the height to 160 m. Comprising straight steelwork beams, the tower was assembled in six sections at ground level and erected in the same way a telescope is extended. No cranes were used.