Austrian Postal Savings Bank
The eight-storey building of the Austrian Postal Savings Bank is the current headquarters of the BAWAG PSK and is one of the most famous ( and most photographed ) Art Nouveau building in Vienna.
Description
Between 1904 and 1906 as k.k. Postsparcassen - Office, designed by Otto Wagner built in the then brand new reinforced concrete, it was opened on 17 December 1906. It is located at the Georg -Coch-Platz 2 A second part box office area for the circulation effect, was grown 1910-12.
In the course of obstruction of the ring road, the building was planned as the center of the bar area, which was previously location of Franz Joseph Barracks and the Franz -Joseph- gate.
The facade is covered with square marble tablet and aluminum applications that are reminiscent of a money bin. At low and high ground floor granite plates are attached. This is a particularly successful synthesis of functionality and aesthetics: the rivets with which the marble cladding is apparently attached to the wall, are solely ornament and structure the facade. Since the 10 cm thick plates are held by the plaster, the rivets comes to no load-bearing function. Wagner, who truly appreciated the by the Austrian chemist Carl Josef Bayer perfected for industrial production aluminum material, the material used not only for the rivets, but also for other decorative elements around and inside the building, such as for the portico columns and the fan of the central heating.
In the square courtyard at the center front double glass roof of the underlying cash hall can be seen. The lower shell roof of the hall is however curved. The semi-circular structures are the outer walls of the staircases guess. To get there, the customer increases over a wide staircase and crosses it and a gear the entire front building. The floor in the banking hall is made of glass tiles that light into the rooms below guide ( mailbox and mail sorting rooms). It is actually under daylight.
In the vestibule there is a bust of Franz Joseph I of Richard Luksch, the 4.3 m high, for the first time made of cast aluminum corner figures on the Attica come by Othmar Schimkowitz. The stained glass windows are in part a work of Leopold Forstner.
The building of the P.S.K. can be seen on the back of the 500 schilling banknote from 1985.
The interior layout according to window axes with non-load bearing partition walls is still standard in office buildings.
Since 1904, the building was always used as an office building and maintained during the Second World War it was spared from bomb hits. Between 1970 and 1985 there was a general refurbishment, the construction of a parking garage joined. The, built for the founder of the Post Office Savings Bank, Georg Coch on the square in front of the Post Office Savings Bank monument was not erected after the completion of the underground car park in the center of the Georg -Coch -Platz, but in the building line of the room Ring Control.
From spring 2004 until the fall of 2005 a general renovation took place, which was completed as planned in front of the 100 - year celebration of the building. The existing air conditioning systems were renewed in the open-plan offices and in other offices - 500 window bays with a total area of 10.000m ² - first installed throughout air conditioning. As the building is listed and therefore the subsequent installation of ventilation ducts would not have been possible, the system of Entfeuchtungskühldecke was used, which was specially developed for it. The tiled courtyard above the banking hall was a trailable, slender glass structure covered as a protective cover to counter the damage recurrent abspringender tiles and thus the risk of double glass roof over the banking hall. Furthermore lost radiators were watered again after historical model, restored surfaces in and around the building, and attached to the inner wings of the casement windows thinnest insulating glass panes over the decades. Many ocular ventilation ducts recent could be removed so as to again clear the view of the reinforced concrete slabs and restore the original sense of space again. The architectural line was carried out by Diether S. Hoppe
Trivia
Otto Wagner had air conditioning from the beginning, the great halls ( banking hall, rooms underneath, ...), the big aluminum fan in the banking hall are particularly striking. However, they were operated provided in the reverse direction as Wagner from about 1984 to 2005. In 2005, the original direction of flow was restored.
On the hottest days of the year the shadow of the neighboring buildings are not enough zoom to the Postal Savings Bank building so that the building would be seen from the sunlight also completely detached not heated more. This resulted in a simulation of the irradiation conditions on the computer, which was also confirmed in the minutes -wise comparison with reality. Due to the smooth outer walls and the clear geometry of the floor plan of the comparison between simulation and photography was seen particularly clearly.
For the 4 Advent wreaths in the banking hall there are separate openings in the glass roof by flying the ropes.