Párisi Department Store

The Paris Department Store is the first building in Hungary to be built specifically for department store purposes. It is registered as a national monument due to its innovative reinforced concrete solutions and the Neo-Renaissance ballroom in the building, decorated with frescoes by Károly Lotz and Árpád Feszty. The store is located on the site of the Neo-Renaissance-style Casino of Terézváros, at the inner part of Andrássy street, built in 1885 according to the plans of Gusztáv Petschacher. The architect, Zsigmond Sziklay, kept the casino’s richly decorated ballroom and integrated it into the department store building built in 1910-11. In the building, which bears the style marks of industrial Art Nouveau, special attention was paid to the artistic shaping of the reinforced concrete structures, as well as to the fire protection system of the building beyond its age.

Major alterations were made in the ’60s, leaving the imprint of a third-century style mark on the building, and then welcomed customers under the name of Divatcsarnok. The property has stood empty and in destruction since 1991, till ORCO Property Group bought the building in 2005 to connect it back into the city’s circulation.

The architects of the TIBA Architect Studio planned to renovate the building taking into account the monumental values ​​as well as the new aspects resulting from the partial change of the function. The remaining building elements and decorative motifs have undergone careful restoration. With the addition of contemporary architectural elements and the reinterpretation of spaces and spatial relationships, the usage, technical and aesthetic needs of today are met, creating a fresh and exciting mix of historical and contemporary styles, layered with the architectural language of different eras.

Video: https://youtu.be/BcBULrl4NT8