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Singer House, Saint Petersburg

Singer House, also widely known as the House of the Book, is a historic building in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is located at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and the Griboyedov Canal, directly opposite the Kazan Cathedral. It is recognized as a historical landmark and has official status as an object of Russian cultural heritage.

The building was constructed in 1902–1904 by the leading Petersburg architect of the time, Pavel Suzor, for the Russian headquarters of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. After the Russian Revolution the house was nationalized and since 1919 used for offices of the editors' houses of various magazines and publishers. The main city bookshop was opened in 1938 and stayed operative even during the World War II.

In the early 2000s the building was reconstructed. The Russian social network company VKontakte has rented offices in the building since 2010. In 1900 the Singer Company bought lands in Podolsk to open its production centre there; it planned to expand its business not only into the Russian market but further to the east: to Turkey, Persia, China, and Japan. The company looked for a presentable headquarters so soon a piece of land on the most active business street in the Russian capital was chosen and bought for an enormous sum of money, more than 1 million roubles. To design and construct the building the company invited the most prominent Russian architect of that time – Pavel Suzor.