Vul. Mentsynskoho, 3 – residential building

The building is located in the street's row housing consisting of townhouses in the styles of Neo-Classicism, Historicism, "decorative" and "rational" Secession. It directly borders on three-storied buildings in Biedermeier style (Mentsynskoho street 1, 5, 7).

The building was originally constructed as residential, that is, its premises were rented for housing on the upper floors and for offices or shops on the ground floor. It has four floors and two tracts in plan and is covered with a gable roof. The building is located on an ​​irregularly shaped plot, which narrows from the main building in depth. Together with the plot of the house no. 1 it forms almost a regular rectangle.

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The gate in the center of the façade leads to a wide passage and then to a large courtyard of irregular shape, built up with three- and four-storied wings.

Originally, the townhouse's ground floor was occupied by numerous shops, eight in each tract. The entrances to the shops were arranged from the main façade and from the courtyard and from the passage. At present, most entrances are walled, and premises are merged into larger ones.

To the right in the depth of the passage, there is an entrance to a spacious staircase, square in plan with a somewhat larger circle inscribed in it, where the stairways are located. The staircase volume is cylindrical, with an internal round opening for viewing and ventilation. The first three floors have a height of 4.15 m; the added fourth floor is lower, with a height of 3.5 m.

From the landings one can enter balcony galleries encircling the main building's rear façade and the wings' façades. At the ends of the landings there are, in a mirror position, entrances to the apartments. The staircase shift to the right part of the house led to each floor division into two apartments of different size. On the second and third floors the larger apartment has five rooms, with a large kitchen and a pantry, a bathroom unit and a separate toilet with an entrance from the hallway. The other apartment has five rooms too, but it is much smaller, has a small kitchen and a bathroom unit. In both types of dwellings the kitchen is located on the rear façade, and the bathroom units are inside the apartment, unlit. From the kitchens of both apartments a balcony facing the courtyard can be entered. On the fourth floor there are two three-room apartments and one four-room apartment with small kitchens and bathroom units. The entrance to the apartment, located at the boundary wall of the house number 1, is from the balcony. As was traditional for the contemporary architecture of Lviv, all rooms are communicating.

The entrance to the attic was arranged from the fourth floor landing via a ladder through a hatch.

In the wings, there are an average of five two-room apartments with kitchens and bathroom units on each floor. One can get there through the balconies, accessible both from the main house and, via three staircases, from the courtyard.

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The eleven-window façade is symmetrical. According to the Neo-Classicist composition principles, the main axis is additionally emphasized by the central part with a massive balcony on the second floor and decorative arches above the windows.

The ground floor plane is segmented by relief rustication and separated by a cornice. The second and third floors are united by massive fluted Corinthian pilasters topped with an entablature. For a harmonious combination with the neighbouring three-storied façades the fourth (added) floor is designed as an attic one. It is notable for the use of the theme of stylized Renaissance attic formed of obelisks and volutes, for example, like the Black Townhouse (pl. Rynok, 4). Pilasters between the windows serve as stylized obelisks.

All openings are rectangular and designed concisely. All windows are the same size (except for larger shop windows and smaller windows of the fourth floor). The fourth floor windows as well as the gate have profiled trimmings.

The leading idea of the façade décor is an ornament composed of scrolls and leaves of several kinds of plants. Between the second and third floor windows between the pilasters, there is a wide stucco frieze with alternating ornaments of two kinds with stylized poppy and acanthus leaves, small rosettes and scrolls, interconnected by moulded clamps (like those used in smithery). On the avant-corps, there are decorative arches with archivolts instead of the frieze. Their tympanums are filled with reliefs of scrolls, acanthus and grape leaves. The spaces outside archivolts are decorated with moulding in the shape of vines. Below all second floor windows, there are Neo-Renaissance garlands. At the fourth floor level the scrolls appear in the frieze's wavy meander, in the stylized Ionic capitals, and crown the pilasters with massive palmettes in the shape of counter volutes with royal lilies. The balcony fencing's forged ornament in the Neo-Renaissance style is also based on the combination of scrolls. The fencing consists of eight parts. Horizontally, it is strengthened with metal strips; that is why a broad band with a kind of meander of scrolls was formed in the bottom, while above one can see a narrower band of stylized arrows with flowers (an Empire-style borrowing). Clamps for connecting forged elements are made in the form of royal lilies.

The balcony slab is supported by four massive white stone consoles with volutes and typical Empire-style poppy leaves. The consoles, characteristic of Lviv's houses of the first half of the 19^th c., must have remained from the Classicist-style façade. Apparently, this décor served as a base to create new ornaments for the entire façade in 1912-1913.

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The stylistic study of the townhouse's façade suggests that the reconstruction of 1912-1913 changed (and added) only some part of the décor, while preserving the authentic dimensions of all structural elements and the typical Empire-style composition of the façade. Comparing the façades of the houses no. 3 and 5, one can see similar compositional devices: similar central avant-corpses, fluted pilasters and decorative arches above the second floor windows. However, all the decorations on the façade of the building no. 5, which has been preserved without restructuring, is concentrated only on the central avant-corps, according to the Neo-Classicist hierarchic principle. Perhaps the façade of the house no. 3 had once a similar appearance.

The passage interior has retained a structure, typical of the mid-19^th c., with a roadway paved with small ocher-colored tiles and with wide stone sidewalks on each side. In the passage walls, there were portals of entrances to shops (now walled). The passage has identical wooden gates with wickets at both ends. The walls are divided by pilasters with double consoles supporting decorative beams. Square spaces between the beams are decorated with recessed panels, there are decorative ovals with volutes in the corners and bronze hooks for lamps in the center. The spaces between the pilasters are divided into two recessed panels with a stylized cartouche with scrolls and a sequin ornament between them. The design of the passage walls and of the staircase is typical of the rational Secession; however, this elegant design is distorted by the modern painting of the walls with an unprofessional imitation of marble and by tubes and wires laid overhead. The lower part of the walls is being ruined.

A wooden double door leads from the passage to the staircase, cylindrical in plan. For lighting of the landing a large window is arranged, which has retained its authentic woodwork. The staircase design is unique for Lviv. The stone stairway begins with a massive stone pillar, which was once crowned with a lantern. The stairs have a forged fencing with brass handrails. On the steps one can still see brass hooks for sticks, which fixed the carpet. The fencing is divided into squares, with dynamically treated forged calla lilies inscribed in each. The sections are limited on the sides by mirrored scrolls. The floor is covered with terrazzo tiles in a combination of grey and black colors.

The lower part of the staircase wall is separated by a high base, coated with pink and beige artificial marble plates and limited at the top and at the bottom by stripes of black marble. Along the whole wall the socle is   decorated with metrically arranged mosaic panels, framed in pink; the spaces between the panels are coated with beige marble. The distorted plane of the wall creates a lot of light and color effects due to a combination of the shiny surfaces of marble, the glitter of the mosaic stones (especially that of gold smalt), and the dull surface of the top part of the wall. Thematically, the panels are typical of the Secession; the images of local plants like pansies, iris, and poppies can be seen there. The mosaics show the beauty of manual labor (as opposed to mechanized production) and the uniqueness of a work of art, as each composition is somewhat different. The flowers are depicted in a naturalistic way (some panels have over 30 colors), are located against a light background and framed with mosaic rows of contrasting colors (gold, black, green, brown).

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The entrances to the apartments on the landings of the second and fourth floors are framed in black marble with molded overdoors. Some entrances have retained the authentic woodwork with bronze latches and hinges. Above the entrances to certain apartments some inlaid elements have been preserved, like cartouches and apartment numbers. There were mirrors beside entrances (have not survived), with frames and wide pedestals, which could serve as shelves for things.

All exits to the balcony galleries have retained their authentic woodwork.

In the center of the staircase ceiling, there is a round panel; the planes around it are divided into segments. On the staircase ceiling and on each landing, just as in the passage, bronze hooks have survived. Thus, the house had 11 bronze lamps (all lost).