The Ulyanovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore named after Ivan Goncharov presents a concrete hollow block designed by Fyodor Livchak.
Fyodor Iosifovich Livchak (1878–1919) was a Russian architect and civil engineer, whose work is associated with the city of Simbirsk. The future architect was born in the city of Vilna into the family of an inventor and public figure Iosif Nikolayevich Livchak. His penchant for arts predetermined his admission to the Saint Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers of Emperor Nicholas I. Upon graduating from the institute in 1904, Fyodor Livchak received the title of civil engineer with the right to occupy a 10th–class position and spent some time working as a junior engineer in the construction department of the Smolensk provincial government. At the beginning of the 20th century, Livchak became one of the first Russian architects to appreciate the enormous potential of a new building material — concrete.
Fyodor Livchak influenced the architectural features of the town of Simbirsk at the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1906 and 1910, when he worked as an architect for the town council, he developed several projects for public buildings, apartment buildings and schools of economics, as well as a project for improving the Volga embankment. In 1909, the first building made of concrete blocks designed by Livchak — a hospital pavilion of the Simbirsk provincial zemstvo — was erected in Simbirsk. On March 1, 1910, Fyodor Livchak headed the construction department of the Simbirsk provincial zemstvo. Under his leadership, a concrete plant was built in 1910, and in 1911 he opened his own plant which, apart from concrete blocks, also produced colored cement tiles, mosaic-marble steps, tiles, reinforced concrete pipes, and other things. In 1914, the first cement plant was opened.
In 1915, Fyodor Livchak’s plant expanded significantly and moved to the left bank of the Volga after it had received a large contract for the production of stone blocks for the cartridge factory that was to be built there. Over the four years of hard work in Simbirsk, Livchak completed experiments to develop his own construction method using hollow blocks of concrete, simplified the masonry system and invented a machine for making concrete blocks.
