Alexander Zelenko grew up in a family of Saint Petersburg Medical Academy professor. He trained first in Cadet Corps, graduated from Saint Petersburg Civil Engineers Institute in 1892, trained in Vienna and in Fyodor Shekhtel's firm in Moscow. Zelenko relocated to Samara, bringing Art Nouveau to this Volga town. For a while, he enjoyed steady flow of commissions and the title of Town Architect . Later, he taught in graphic arts in Moscow, travelled to United States in 1903-1904; in this period, Zelenko switched from architectural practice to education. In 1905 Zelenko joined educators Stanislav Shatsky and Louise Shleger on their Summer Labor Commune project in Shchyolkovo, then on Russia's first club for the children. Next year, they set up state-funded Settlement Society for training and professional education. Funded by industrialist Nikolay Krotov, Zelenko designed and built extant Communal Club for the Children in Moscow. The castle-like expressionist structure, designed as "inhabitable sculpture", is sometimes compared to Gaudi and Hundertwasser. This club looked after the working teenagers of Moscow's blue-collar North End, and was part of a larger effort to create a new social and educational center in then remote part of Tverskoy and Meshchansky Districts. Settlement was organized in separate boys and girls groups of 12. Each group selected their training schedule, and shaped its own code of conduct. Vadkovsky lane house integrated Settlement program with traditional kindergarten for working families and a two-year junior school. The arts and crafts courses, licensed to "A.U.Zelenko, Architect", catered to around 200 children. Although Zelenko abstained from active politics, police disbanded Settlement on May 1, 1908; Zelenko was jailed for a few months and had to flee to United States again. Upon his return in 1910, he again worked with Shatsky, lectured at the Shanyavsky University and continued architectural practice. Before World War I, he completed highly publicized Pfeffer House in Sokolniki, Kindergarten in Khamovniki medical campus and other buildings. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, and until his death in 1953, Zelenko worked in various Soviet educational institutions, notably in setting architectural standards for schools and kindergartens. Zelenko collaborated in the Museum Commission, designing exhibitions for children and promoting Alfred Lichtwark's Museumpaedagogic concept. Zelenko, then in his sixties, also collaborated with Nikolai Ladovsky on his Linear city urban concept.
