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White Tower
Белая башня
The White Tower in 2019
General information
Type	Water tower
Architectural style	Constructivism
Location	Yekaterinburg, Russia
Address	2 Bakinskikh Komissarov street
Coordinates	56°53′35″N 60°34′21″E
Year(s) built	1929-1931
Height	29 m (95 ft)
Dimensions
Diameter	13.5 m (44 ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Moisei Reisher
Engineer	Vladimir Fidler
Website
https://www.tower1929.ru/

The White Tower (Russian: Белая башня romanized: Belaya bashnya) is a constructivist monument and a former water tower of the Uralmash plant in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The tower was built in 1929-1931 by the architect Moisei Reisher and became one of the first reinforced concrete structures in the city.

With the development of the city's water supply network in the 1960s, the tower was taken out of service, was not used for many years and fell into disrepair. In September 2012, the Federal State Property Management Agency transferred the building for free use to the Podelniki architectural group, which organized the conservation and gradual restoration of the building. The building is currently used as a cultural venue and is considered to be the unofficial symbol of Uralmash neighborhood.

In 1974, the White Tower was recognized as an architectural monument of national importance.

History

On 15 July 1928, in the north of Yekaterinburg (at that time Sverdlovsk), the foundation of the future metalworking shop of the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant was ceremoniously laid. Along with the construction of production buildings, the construction of an accommodation for workers began, this large-scale construction soon faced a water shortage. Initially, water was delivered by horses from wells near the Kamyshenka River, but its quality did not meet the requirements. Additionally, there is information about the construction of a temporary water pipeline from the Kalinovka stream.

The existing water resources could not satisfy the growing needs of the construction site and the functioning of the town. The Uralmash management began to look for other ways to solve the problem. Professor-hydrogeologist Modest Kler suggested that on the shore of Lake Shuvakish at a depth of about 50 meters there is a pool of artesian water, from which it would be possible to extract up to 5000 m³ of water per day. A group of specialists from the Nizhny Tagil Vysokogorsk Mining Administration, headed by hydrogeologist Alexander Tutunin, was invited to develop the deposits. Having drilled eight test wells, the researchers discovered water at a depth of 80-100 meters.

In 1928, the design department of Uralmash began working on the project of the water tower and its communications, while the drilling of the wells on Lake Shuvakish began only in the spring of 1930. During the drilling, a chisel broke off, which for a long time could not be removed from the well, delaying the construction. By the decision of the chief engineer Vladimir Fidler, a contract was signed with group of German specialists, for drilling five wells with a diameter of half a meter. Two of them turned out to be low-water, but all of them were enough to supply drinking water to the workers' town via a temporary pipeline by mid-September 1930. A year later, the laying of permanent communications was completed and the construction of a pumping station and reservoirs was finished.