Savva Ivanovich Chevakinsky (Russian: Савва Иванович Чевакинский; 1709 – aft. 1774) was a Russian architect of the Baroque school. He worked in Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo.
Chevakinsky was born into a noble family in the village of Veshki in the Novotorzhsky Uyezd of Tver Governorate. In 1729 he entered the Naval Academy in Saint Petersburg, from whence he was assigned to the Izmaylovsky Life Guards Regiment in 1734. At the request of the Admiralty Board he was discharged for unauthorized absence from the Academy and apprenticed to the architectural company of Ivan Korobov [ru], under whose direction he worked for seven years.
In 1739 Chevakinsky began his independent career. From 1741 to 1767 he was chief architect for the Admiralty Board. From 1745 to 1760 he was an architect at Tsarskoye Selo, supervising the reconstruction of the Catherine Palace and surrounding Catherine Park. Here Chevakinsky erected two buildings (a church and a hall) connected by galleries to the central part of the palace, erected the Monbizhu pavilion [ru] (which housed palace officials), and participated in the creation of the Hermitage pavilion [ru].
Chevakinsky's largest building in Saint Petersburg was the St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral (1753–1762) with a separate tiered bell tower (1756–1758). He also rebuilt the Kunstkamera, the museum of anthropology and ethnography established by Peter the Great.
Chevakinsky also constructed the Cavalry Houses, a project commissioned by Empress Elizabeth centered on building houses that differentiated Pushkin, Saint Petersburg from the area surrounding the palace. Construction took place between 1752 and 1753.
