ABSTRACT
Commissioned by the Petersburg Insurance Society to provide Moscow with a hotel that would meet international standards of design and luxury, the Metropole had a complicated construction history. Even the winning design of William Walcot was substantially modified—in certain respects almost beyond recognition—before work began in 1899. During the five years of construction, other architects were involved in the project, most notably Lev Kekushev, who supervised the construction and added a number of elements of his own.
