At the western tip of Vasilyevsky Island four residential towers stand on concrete legs three storeys tall. Locals call them the houses on chicken legs, and they are the most honest piece of late-Soviet modernism you can reach in five minutes from a metro station. Here is where they are, who designed them, why architects lift buildings onto columns, and how to look at them without bothering the people who live there.
Where to find them
The address is Novosmolenskaya Embankment 2, 4, 6 and 8, by the mouth of the Smolenka river. From Primorskaya metro station it is about 380 metres: walk out to Nalichnaya Street and head towards the water. The towers stand in a row on the even-numbered side, at right angles to the river, and the classic view is from the opposite bank of the Smolenka.
Facing them across the embankment is number 1 — at 760 metres, the longest residential building in Saint Petersburg, with a tall archway cut through its middle. The towers and that wall of flats were designed as a single front facing the Gulf of Finland.
The idea behind the legs
A building raised on columns is said to stand on pilotis. The device goes back to the architectural fashion of the 1920s: Soviet constructivists used it, and so did Le Corbusier, in the Marseille Unité d'Habitation and in the Centrosoyuz building in Moscow, built between 1928 and 1936. The point was never purely structural. Tall supports make a heavy building look as if it floats, and the ground underneath stays free — for a courtyard, a passage, or simply for the wind.
Soviet architects had practical reasons too: in the north, legs kept buildings from freezing into the permafrost and from being buried in snow; near water they helped against floods; in cities they let air move under the block so exhaust fumes would not collect.
Who built the Petersburg towers
The ensemble on the reclaimed western edge of Vasilyevsky Island began in the studio of Sergei Yevdokimov. After the project was reworked in 1972 it was led by Vitaly Sokhin, with Pyotr Kurochkin and Vladimir Sokolov doing the design work. The towers were placed on what the sources describe as Corbusian supports three storeys high, to balance the composition of the embankment and give it more plasticity.
Accounts of the height differ: the reworked project raised the towers to 26 floors, while popular descriptions speak of 22 residential floors plus two technical ones. Construction ran through the second half of the 1980s, and the last two towers were handed over in the early 1990s, after the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. Each tower has a single entrance, and flats face either west to the gulf or east to the city.
The Moscow echo
Moscow's best-known Soviet house on legs is the Aviators' House at 34 Begovaya Street, designed by Andrei Meyerson and built between 1973 and 1978 — the first residential building in the USSR made of monolithic reinforced concrete. The device is back today: on the site of the former Badayevsky brewery, between Kutuzovsky Avenue and Taras Shevchenko Embankment, Herzog & de Meuron are designing a residential complex for Capital Group that stands on 35-metre columns and is meant to float above the old brick factory halls.
How to look at them
These are ordinary apartment blocks, not a museum. There is no need to walk into the courtyards or the entrances, and no need to photograph people in their windows. The best angle is from the Smolenka embankment, where all four towers line up at once; evening light is kindest, because the facades face the gulf. From there it is a fifteen-minute walk to the reclaimed shoreline and the glass bus shelter with a view of the Gulf of Finland.
If you want a fuller day on the island, combine the towers with a walk around Vasilyevsky Island the way locals do it.
Frequently asked questions
Where are the houses on legs in Saint Petersburg?
Novosmolenskaya Embankment 2, 4, 6 and 8, on the western side of Vasilyevsky Island near the mouth of the Smolenka. It is roughly 380 metres on foot from Primorskaya metro station.
Why were these buildings put on columns?
According to the project description, to balance the composition of the embankment: supports three storeys high gave the ensemble more plasticity. The device itself comes from 1920s architecture and Le Corbusier; Soviet practice also used legs against permafrost, floods and trapped exhaust fumes.
How tall are the towers on Novosmolenskaya Embankment?
Sources differ: the reworked project took them to 26 floors, while descriptions mention 22 residential floors plus two technical ones. There are four towers, each with one entrance.
Can I go inside?
No. They are private residential buildings with entry phones. Look at them from the street and from the Smolenka embankment instead.
Are there similar buildings in Moscow?
Yes — the Aviators' House at 34 Begovaya Street (1973–1978, architect Andrei Meyerson), and a current project by Herzog & de Meuron on 35-metre columns at the former Badayevsky brewery.
History of the ensemble and the pilotis device from material on Novosmolenskaya Embankment and on houses on legs (Wikipedia, citing architectural publications); the Badayevsky project from Archi.ru reports on the Herzog & de Meuron concept for Capital Group; distance to the metro from OpenStreetMap. Checked 9 September 2026. Cover photo: Artyom Svetlov, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
