In Gruziny, where Georgians settled in the early 18th century, on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street opposite the modern zoo, the famous architect R. I. Klein built the dormitory of Moscow University named after Nicholas II in 1903.

The initiator of the construction was N. P. Bogolepov, who became the Minister of Public Education in 1898. He believed that the opening of the dormitory would help calm the student movement. University professors conducted additional classes in the dormitory and also organized musical and dance evenings for students. The building, designed for 150 places, was named after Emperor Nicholas II.

Architect R. I. Klein, who graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and the Imperial Academy of Arts, created more than 60 major buildings in Moscow. Among his famous works are the Middle Trading Rows, Borodinsky Bridge, the shop 'Muir and Meriliz', and others. Klein worked in various architectural styles, such as pseudo-Gothic, neoclassicism, neo-Russian, and brick.

Professor I. Tsvetaev, the first director of the Museum of Fine Arts and a professor at Moscow University, called Klein 'an artist native to Moscow University.' Later, he invited Klein to participate in the competition for the design of the Museum of Fine Arts building, announced by the Academy of Arts in August 1896. Thanks to his connections, the architect worked extensively for Moscow University, building the Mineralogical Building on Mokhovaya, the Museum of Fine Arts on Volhonka, and the dormitory on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya, which was erected according to his project that won first prize in the competition.

The dormitory on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Street is a four-story building in the neoclassical style. The facade of the building is designed modestly and concisely: the first floor is decorated with rustication, the windows of the second and third floors have triangular or semicircular pediments and classical-style sills. The central part of the facade is highlighted by a risalit, characteristic of classical and neoclassical architecture. The fourth floor is separated from the third by a decorative cornice, also commonly used in classical style.

During the Soviet era, the building housed the Institute of Earth Physics, which in September 1956, after the death of Academician O. Yu. Schmidt, was named after him. The memorial plaque states: 'In this building worked from 1950 to 1956 the founder of the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, an outstanding scientist, statesman, and public figure, Hero of the Soviet Union Academician Otto Yulievich Schmidt.'

The Institute of Earth Physics still occupies this building today.