2 Residential Buildings for the Public Works Estate in Marosvásárhely

“It was in that autumn [in fact, January 1910] that György Bernády, the all-powerful lord lieutenant and mayor of Marosvásárhely, who had been staying in Budapest for several days, invited me to a meeting at his lodging in the Pannónia Hotel. […]

He said he had summoned me in order to meet me personally and to ask me directly whether I would have the inclination and the time to undertake the urgent preparation of preliminary sketch designs and technical descriptions for the two-storey residential buildings to be erected the following year for the workers and officials of the municipal gasworks of Marosvásárhely.

I was astonished by this unexpected request:

— Would this be a limited competition?

— No, the mayor replied, this is an exclusively personal request addressed to you.”

— Károly Kós: Autobiography, ed. Samu Benkő, Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó–Kriterion, Budapest–Bucharest, 1991, p. 106.

After 1900, during the mayoralty of György Bernády, Marosvásárhely underwent rapid development. New public buildings such as the Palace of Culture and the Town Hall were erected, which rank among the most significant works of Hungarian architecture at the turn of the century. The new industrial complex was planned on the outskirts of the city, directly adjacent to the railway line and to a canal intended for a turbine complex.

In mid-January 1910, a call for tenders entitled “Reconstruction and Expansion of the Municipal Power Plant” was published in Az Újság. Preparations for the competition for the power transmission facility had been underway for several years, and the final documentation also included designs for administrative buildings. Ultimately, however, Bernády removed the residential buildings from the officially announced technical and mechanical competition. In that same month, the mayor met in Budapest with several interested contractors as well as with Kós, with whom he reached a personal agreement regarding the design commission.

On 19 April 1910, Károly Kós sent the plans for the two utility residential buildings (ten drawings) to György Bernády “according to verbal agreement,” as evidenced by a letter dated to that time (RNL). On 3 May, the city submitted Kós’s designs and cost estimate as suitable for realization (file no. 3244/910). At the competitive tender held with a deadline of 12 May, the Engineering Office judged the proposal of Lajos Bustya as most advantageous for Building No. 1, and that of Domonkos Barabás for Building No. 2. Between June and August 1910, Kós prepared the execution drawings; site supervision and the elaboration of detailed plans continued in the second half of the year and into early 1911. The two buildings were completed in the spring, with handover extending into the summer.

From the summer of 1910 onward, Kós stayed with Toroczkai Wigand Ede in Marosvásárhely while working on the gasworks residential buildings. During this period, the two architects collaborated closely. Kós traveled every two weeks between Cluj and Marosvásárhely for site supervision of the utility buildings, for construction work on his parents’ house in Brétfű, and for preparations related to their joint project, the Folyovits House in Cluj.

The two buildings, originally standing side by side on what was then Factory Street, contained apartments for employees.

Building No. 1

The main building consists of two separate gabled blocks connected by covered passageways, joined by a massive bastion-like tower. The tower is in fact an integral part of the eastern wing.

Facing the street on the southern façade, the left block contained four two-room apartments per floor, each with its own staircase, and storage rooms in the basement. The right block housed one apartment per floor, comprising an entrance hall, four rooms, bathroom, kitchen, and servant’s room. The basement level included a bath, laundry, and storage spaces. A staircase within the tower led up to the large apartment on the upper floor, which was presumably intended as the director’s residence.

Building No. 2

In a manner related to the first building, functionally distinct blocks are connected by an open porch and unified roofing. A single staircase leads to the upper-level gallery. On the left side, arranged in an L-shape, were three room-and-kitchen apartments and two two-room apartments on both floors. In the right-hand wing, one three-room apartment was located on the upper floor, while the ground floor contained one two-room apartment and one room-and-kitchen unit. The smaller apartments on the upper floor shared sanitary facilities located at the end of the open gallery.

At a later date, the main building was structurally unified with reinforced-concrete floor slabs, and the apartments were converted for office use. At that time, the wooden covered connecting corridor was removed. The wooden balcony on the main façade was temporarily replaced with reinforced concrete and steel railings; this feature has since been partially restored. Cement paint was applied to the rubble-stone plinth. The original armorial inscription on the right gable of the main façade—Maros-Vásárhely sz. kir. város Világítási és Erőátviteli telepe (Royal Free City of Marosvásárhely, Lighting and Power Transmission Works)—is no longer visible. The gate opening from the street retaining wall was later walled up. The more modest second building had its open porches glazed in, and the projecting wooden balcony on the side façade was altered.