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Enerhetychna St. 1-12 - Apartment Houses

ID: 2563
Apartment Houses

History

In 1928-1929 nine similar three-storied houses were built by Wacław Nowakowski, a famous Krakow architect and a Lviv Polytechnic graduate, on Enerhetychna street 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12.

This area of contemporary Lviv was called Persenkivka (Pol. Persenkówka), from the name of Jakub Persing, a Lviv merchant, who purchased it in 1687. From the second half of the nineteenth century this suburban settlement was actively developed due to the construction of a railway connecting Lviv with Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk, as well as because of the construction of the second – and main – city power station and the formation of an industrial zone.

The buildings, erected according to Nowakowski's projects, had some analogous design solutions. Despite planning differences, they were all covered by high four-pitched roofs and surrounded by greenery. Along with villas located nearby on Panasa Myrnoho street and built a little earlier in the 'manor style' (Pol. Styl dwórkowy), these buildings formed the 'Własna Strzecha' housing cooperative settlement.

The architecture of the complex on Enerhetychna street is formally very similar to that of the townhouse of the Lviv Intellectual Workers Insurance Institution in Krakow on the Inwalidów Square 6, built in 1926 by Nowakowski. The cooperative's buildings are notable for the use of clinker brick as basements and portals are decorated with strips of this brick, the staircase windows are framed with it. The façades are also decorated with numerous delicate cornices. The door woodwork is decorated by geometric carvings.

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