Reconstruction of the Drechsler Palace, creation of the W Budapest Hotel
The reconstruction of one of Budapest's emblematic buildings, the Drechsler Palace, designed by Ödön Lechner, has been completed. The former luxury tenement building with a checkered past has opened its doors after almost twenty years as part of the W hotel chain. The general design was carried out by Bánáti + Hartvig Architects.
The renewal of the luxury apartment block at 25 Andrássy Avenue was a major challenge for the designers, as the building had to be converted into a luxury hotel, where interior design was of key importance, formal and engineering requirements had to be met, while the historical heritage of the listed building had to be preserved. These aspects have materialised in harmonised design solutions that mutually amplify the historical heritage and the contemporary architectural solutions.
The history of the building
It was built at the end of the 1800s, based on the designs of Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos, commissioned by the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) Pension Institute. The apartment building has clear influences from the French Renaissance style. At the time Lechner had not yet found his architectural voice, which would later become prominent in his ouvre as the “Hungarian Art Nouveau style”, but the building of the MÁV Pension Institute was an important stage in this quest. It definitely bears the marks of the architect’s innovative, experimental ambitions: for example, he used large quantities of artificial stone on the façade, which, although he had high hopes for, he did not use to such a degree later. He also experimented around this time with using Zsolnay pyrogranite ceramics, which would later become his trademark, but which does not appear here.
The building was made popular and well-known by its restaurant and café on the ground floor and mezzanine. One of its tenants was Béla Drechsler, whose name was kept even after he had ceased to run his famous establishment. Famous personalities of the era’s cultural scene, such as Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, Károly Goldmark, Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler, regularly visited the café and the restaurant. The apartment building’s heyday did not last long; in 1909 a fire destroyed the entire roof structure, and in the years following its reconstruction it was subject to many unfortunate alterations. It had a succession of tenants and owners, and has been unused since 2002, which meant that it deteriorated further until the start of the current reconstruction.
New lease of life with restored functions
The former luxury apartment building is revived as a member of the W Hotel Chain. As a result, the residential and hospitality functions were restored, similarly to the original building: the hospitality area will open onto Andrássy Avenue, while the glass-roofed inner courtyard in the centre of the building will lead to the various hotel amenities. The ground floor will house the hotel’s reception, lobby, catering and communal areas, the basement will be used for relaxation, regeneration and service functions, while the upper floors will house the rooms. A new fifth floor level was created with additional hotel rooms in the previously unused attic, which has significant clear height, while the remaining free space above accommodates building engineering equipment.
The glass roof of Drechsler Palace’s inner courtyard
Lechner’s ornate façades flank an imposing inner courtyard, which is the focal point of the hotel's operations and communal spaces. In order to protect the area from the elements and to create a more intimate, human-scale courtyard, the area has been covered with a fine, veil-like glass roof.
The architectural design of the glass roof was highly challenging from a professional aspect, as it was a complex task to find the exact location and shape of the structure, where the roof fits harmoniously into the internal façade and preserves the architectural heritage of the surface. The result is a membrane-like, tensioned hyperbolic paraboloid surface that interacts with the façade of the inner courtyard with the same subtlety as Lechner’s architecture.
The hotel entrance canopy
The canopy, which harmonises with the main entrance of the building on Hajós Street, was envisaged to take up the design concept of the inner courtyard’s glass roof, as if to create a dialogue. Just as with the inner courtyard, the architects faced a complex task in finding a connecting line on the façade where the canopy would both respect the existing architecture and fulfil the function they now wanted.
A similar design principle was employed for the canopy protecting the main entrance of the building. The glass surface curves following the arches of the entrance and ends in a horizontal line at its outer edge, supported by individually twisted, suspended steel cantilevers.
Roof reconstruction and the architectural solution for the fifth floor’s strip of skylights
The conversion into a W Hotel has created a new fifth floor with hotel rooms in the previously unused attic which has considerable clear height. In addition to the restoration work, it was therefore necessary to partially rethink the roof angles, as natural lighting in the rooms on the fifth floor was essential.
The design of the windows had to comply with the monument protection and townscape regulations, so the shapes and forms of the lights were based on an extensive professional design process. The roof design of other Lechner buildings was also used by the architects as reference. Inspired by Lechner’s later pyrogranite patterns and following the structure of the slates, a triangular structure of the skylights has been created.
The roof of the Drechsler Palace has been damaged and renovated several times. During the necessary replacement of the roof slabs most of the superstructures and the decorative tinworks were lost. During the present reconstruction the roof ornaments were fully restored, based on the original plans and period photographs.
The design and landscaping of the Drechsler Palace cannot be separated from that of the Opera House opposite it, which was renovated at the same time. It is a special coincidence that the complete reconstruction of the two buildings was carried out in parallel, so the designers were able to consult during the works. Both buildings are set back slightly from the streetline of Andrássy Avenue, creating a small open area in front. Although these can hardly be utilised because of the traffic on the boulevard, they had to be considered during the site restoration. As a first step, the divided paving system surrounding the buildings has been replaced with new, uniform paving, but the full landscaping is yet to be completed.
The reconstruction of the Drechsler Palace was a long-standing debt to Budapest's architecture; following the renovation works, Ödön Lechner’s former apartment building is now looking like its modern-day self.
Text: Béla Bánáti, Zsuzsanna Molnár, Judit Zajacz
The text is based on the scientific documentation and the architectural heritage inventory, as well as on the specification of the project. The former was compiled by András Hadik and Zoltán Fehérvári.
