VLADIVOSTOK: A HISTORIC WALKING TOUR 

  15, ALEUTSKAYA STREET

 

BRYNER RESIDENCE

     This four-story edifice was constructed in 1910 by the German architect G. R. Junghändel for the Bryners, the family of Swiss entrepreneurs who contributed so much to the industrialization of Vladivostok and its region.   Julius Bryner, the renowned patriarch of the family, was a man of great entrepreneurial skill and farsightedness. Already in 1888 he began to export timber to China, and the shipping company that he co-owned eventually became FESCO, the Far Eastern Shipping Company.  He also had three monopolies for the exploitation of the area's natural resources: “Tetukhe” (today Dalnegorsk), which mined non-ferrous metals; “Primorye,” dealing in coal; and “La Société d’exploitation des placers Sofie Alexieeva” [sic], with interests in gold.  Bryner owned several buildings in Vladivostok, including the one next-door--at 13, Aleutskaya Street--where his firm, Bryner, Kuznetsov & Co., had its headquarters, and where FESCO is now located.

     It may be noted that the famous American actor and Academy Award winner Yul Brynner (1920 - 1985) was born in this townhouse; he was the grandson of Julius. (Yul added an “n” to the family name.) When in the 1960s the movie The Magnificent Seven was shown in Vladivostok, many city residents came to watch the film starring their famous compatriot.  Highly talented but torn with inner conflict, Yul Brynner faced many challenges and experienced serious ups and downs in his life.  In 1956 he received an Academy Award--an Oscar--from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his performance in The King

 

 

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BI, 1998

and I.  When he was dying from lung cancer caused by heavy smoking over many years, he taped a public-information message to the American people urging them to stop smoking.  The tape was shown both before and after his death and produced an enormous effect: it is believed to have contributed to some smokers’ decision to stop.

     The Bryner residence was executed in the style of art nouveau with liberal use of ferroconcrete, and was adorned with smalt and a glazed ceramic-mosaic panel in the upper part of the façade.  The building has an effectively simple external design that reflects its internal comfort.   The two staircases leading up to the entrance, the supporting stone walls, the winter garden, and the wrought iron fence are all stylistically connected with the building and create a harmonious whole.  Thanks to its situation on the steep slope of Tiger Hill, which provides a diverse background, the building looks very dynamic and picturesque.  In 1930 the FESCO Communist Party Committee replaced the private printing house that had been established in the building after the Revolution.

 

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