Tilmanis, Osvald

Tilmanis, Osval’d 

(Osvalds Tilmanis). Born Oct. 26 (Nov. 8), 1900, in Jegeri, in what is now Dobele Raion, Latvian SSR. Soviet architect. Honored Art Worker of the Latvian SSR (1955).

Tilmanis studied under E. Laube in the architecture department of the University of Riga from 1921 to 1927. He was Riga’s chief architect from 1934 to 1950 and from 1956 to 1958. Tilmanis served as chairman of the administrative board of the Architects’ Union of the Latvian SSR from 1959 to 1965. He has taught at the Riga Polytechnical Institute since 1958 and has been a professor since 1960.

In Riga, Tilmanis designed municipal apartment houses on Janis Asara Street (1929–30), collaborated with a group of architects on the multistory building of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR (1950–57), and designed the Riga Polytechnical Institute (1956–58). He also collaborated on the restoration and re-planning of the center of Jelgava in 1947 and designed apartment houses on the Square of the Latvian Red Rifles in Riga (completed 1950).

Tilmanis has been awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.