This is the only realized architectural project by the artist El Lissitzky. It was commissioned in 1932 by Ogonyok magazine to be used as a print plant. Previously unknown blueprints of the building were discovered by staff members of the Russian Avant-Garde Fund in a Moscow archive confirming El Lissitzky's authorship. Lissitzky's original plan, reminiscent of his horizontal skyscraper projects,was not realized in full. Only one of the three planned buildings has been built.

In 1935 a five-story apartment building was erected adjacent to the printing plant based on the designs of the constructivist architects Mikhail Barsch and Zunblad called the Zhurgaz House.