Vul. Skoryka, 6 – office building (former residential)

The building is located in row housing at the corner of Shevchenka boulevard and Chaykovskoho street (renamed Skoryka street in 2022). It is one of the architectural landmarks of the boulevard. It features a refined Secession style and a unique composition of its corner section, accentuated with a dome. The Segal House contrasts with the neighboring low-rise Neoclassicist buildings (e.g. Shevchenka boulevard 6), Historicist houses (Skoryka street 8-12), as well as the Modernist "skyscraper" (Shevchenka boulevard 7). It forms a harmonic ensemble with the neighboring Wixel House (Rudanskoho street 1) and the Secessionist building of the Philharmonic Hall (Skoryka street 7).

The building was originally constructed as a rental apartment house, and it partially retains this function. As of 2015, there is a grocery on the ground floor, the upper floors are occupied by offices, including that of the Association of Trade Unions of the Lviv Region.

Floor Layout

The four-storied building has a corner bay and lateral wings on both Skoryka street and Shevchenka boulevard. It has an L-shaped configuration in plan with the cut corner and with its longer side overlooking Skoryka street, from where the entrance was arranged. Through the circular entrance portal one can enter a spacious entryway leading to a rectangular staircase. On the longitudinal axis reproducing the building's configuration, corridors are branching out from the platform in front of the stairs, with two rows of rooms on the sides. Regularly shaped residential and office premises overlook the main façade, while irregularly configured service and sanitary rooms face the courtyard. In the rooms of the second and third floors balconies are located opposite the staircase, thus emphasizing the internal planning of the building on the façade. On the second, third and fourth floors of the corner bay, there are the largest rooms with symmetrical triangular niches and balconies.

The building has a clearly defined structural frame, formed by the bearing walls —  those of the staircase and rooms in the bay, as well as one wall of the corridors. The rest of the walls are partitions.

Given the size of the building and multiple tenants, four bathroom units on each floor were designed: two were located on each side of the staircase, and two bathrooms located at the opposite ends of the corridors.

The internal courtyard is of complicated shape, enabling some insolation to all rooms . There are external winding stairs made of metal in the courtyard, attached to the both sides of the main staircase's walls.

Façade Design

The building's façades feature a complex rhythmic composition. The six-window façade overlooking Skoryka street and the three-window façade overlooking Shevchenka prospect are united by a massive corner, which is a dominant feature. The composition of the façades is subject to the atectonic principle characteristic of the ornamental Secession style; the main features of this principle are as follows: the simplification of the foundation and the growth of the décor richness and the silhouette rifenement upwards. Thus, the planes of the ground and second floors are united by a horizontal section, the second floor windows are united horizontally by raised strips of rustication, the planes of the upper floors are smooth, while the intensity of the molded floral motives on the window frames, friezes, and curvilinear tops increases upwards. Avant-corps wall of the upper floors is decorated with textured plaster planes.

Vertically, the façades are segmented by avant-corpses (a two-window one facing Skoryka street and a single-window one facing Shevchenka prospect) and by a bay on the second, third and fourth floors on the corner. The plane of the wall of the third and fourth floors is decorated with two-dimensional pilasters of the colossal order; the bay is flanked with stylized columns. The avant-corps overlooking Skoryka street indicates on the main façade the location of the staircase, which protrudes on the building's rear façade. This avant-corps is topped with a large segmental arch with a keystone, decorated with the letter "S" (the initial owner's last name is Segal) and a stylized balustrade attic.

The avant-corps overlooking Shevchenka prospect and the corner are topped with characteristic curvilinear Secession-style attics. Initially, the corner silhouette was even more complicated due to the presence of metal openwork vases (probably jardinières) (Architekt, 1907); now they are lost, so the original idea is to some extent distorted. The remaining parts of the façade are topped with a parapet in the form of a balustrade with palmettes. The building is covered with a high double-pitched roof, the corner is crowned with a high dome having a spire.

Window Openings

According to the Secessionist principle of using new and unique forms, window openings are designed differently on each floor. The ground floor featured a semicircular entrance portal and a three-centered corner arch with semicircular shop windows on the sides (Architekt, 1907), yet the latter were made rectangular in the Soviet times. The shape of the segmental openings of the second floor windows is enriched with trimmings having stylized "ears" and a grotesque keystones. The third floor windows are semicircular, while their trimming has a contrasting segmental shape. The fourth floor rectangular windows have simplified Neogothic facet trimming. All windows of the corner bay are large and have a three-part division. Particular attention is drawn by the third floor bay window, which has a horseshoe shape, emphasized by a linear ornament on the façade and a concave shape of the recessed panel above the window.

Balconies and Staircases

The building's balconies are fenced with metal lattices, which are inserted between massive stone columns located in accordance with stone corbels supporting the balconies (Architekt, 1907). Today the columns are lost. The linear Secession ornament of the second floor balconies is different from the others due to a denser filling and a different composition. Above the entrance and above the bay upper balconies, small openwork roofs supported by metal corbels are arranged.

On the rear façade, the staircase volume protrudes along the entire height of the building and is flanked with external metal winding stairs. This meets the principle of inside out design, which is typical of the Art Nouveau style.

Interiors

The compositional core of the building's interiors is a spacious staircase, from which corridors with rooms on both sides branch on each floor. The vestibule and the staircase walls are lined with artificial marble panels in the following combination: gray-brown ones on the basement, ivory ones on the vertical recessed panels, and English red ones on the walls and balustrade columns. The original top parts of these columns are lost, and ceramic drop-shaped brown elements, made at the Lviv ceramic factory, are mounted instead. The balustrade columns support a metal forged fence with a Secession-style ornament. The lower planes of the staircase flights are plastered and segmented by geometric recessed panels in accordance with the division of the walls. The ceilings of the vestibule and of the staircase are designed similarly. The latter is decorated with a stylized rosette in the center.

The most richly designed interior can be seen in the second floor bay room, which was the building owner's study. The Secession principle of the synthesis of spatial arts is fully embodied there. The upper part of the walls is decorated with a wide Neoclassicist sculptural frieze, in which two dancing female figures are repeated metrically. The ceiling plane is divided by recessed panels; in its center, there is a molded rosette with a stylized ornament combining Neoclassicist and Neoromanesque elements. An authentic bronze "spider" chandellier with 10 reflectors hangs from the ceiling.

The room's interior space is enriched by a large window located opposite the entrance, as well as by symmetrically located trapezoidal niches in the lateral walls. The niches are flanked with double stylized columns in the Neoromanesque style, high transparent cabinets serving as their pedestals. The interior space of the niches is segmented into vertical sections, in which recessed panels and wall decorative woven panels are inserted alternately, the latter made in tapestry technique. The tapestries depict women in dreamy poses having rest in the garden. The author of tapestries is unknown. The planarity of the images, the presence of contour, the pastel range of golden and brown shades are typical of the style of Secession and also indicate some influence of Japanese art. The preservation condition of the tapestries is unsatisfactory as the base threads are partly destructed, especially in the lower part of the work, which requires urgent restoration. The niche situated to the left of the entrance has an expressly symmetrical composition with an arched portal on the central axis. In the rectangular portal opening, there is a marble fireplace fenced with a bronze lattice with bas-reliefs. The recessed panels on the sides of the fireplace served as a kind of reflectors for the flickering light of flames. In front of the fireplace, there is an elevation, with two steps leading to it.

The circular arch over the fireplace is decorated with a stained glass (R 50 cm), produced in the workshop of Leon Appel under a project designed by Tadeusz Obmiński. The stained glass has a lead frame filled with polished and ground glass, which is decorated with painting and etching. In the center of the composition, there is a round medallion, in which a half-naked golden-haired girl holds a bird on her hand against the background of the blue sky. On the sides, the medallion is surrounded by branches with leaves and giant red and golden flowers (Грималюк, 2004, 205). This stained glass was illuminated from the inside by the fire in the fireplace.

Initially, the room had Secession-style furniture, which has been lost. In particular, on both sides of the fireplace under the tapestries there were small sofas decorated with floral ornaments (Biryulyov, 2005, 84; Album, 8).

The other rooms have preserved moldings, including the segmentation of the ceilings into recessed panels and a slightly raised linear plant ornament, which is characteristic of the Secession style, in the corners of the ceiling.

Heating Stoves

Three stoves have survived in the house (as of 2015); each of them is an independent work of art in accordance with the concept of the uniqueness of any Secession-style work. On the third floor, at the entrance to the bay room, there are symmetrically located two small stoves, covered with white tiles. These stoves resemble stylized obelisks with a massive pedestal, a body with a curvature and a stylized Secession-style capital with an arched niche. The shape complexity is softened by rounded corners and a significant narrowing of the upper part. In the corners of the pedestal, tiles with roses are inserted, which are made in the raised contour technique. The decorative base (garlands) for the arched niche is designed in a similar way. Obviously, the second floor bay room had the same stoves, as evidenced, in particular, by the similarity of the garlands on the stoves and fireplace lattices, as well as by their stylized Neoclassicist stylistics.

On the same floor, in the room to the left of the bay, there is a stove of slender proportions, faced with pale golden tiles, which correspond to the colours of the tapestries in the second floor study. At first glance, the style of the stove is Neobaroque with some Secession elements. One can see a clear division into a pedestal, a main part and a top part in the shape of a high curvilinear triangular gable with a keystone. The pediment corners are supported by stylized leaves that stand up as acroters. The shape of the stove's tiles is square, with four raised flowers (calendulas or asters) arranged in the corners and combined with a linear Secession ornament. On the second floor, to the left of the study in the bay, there is also an authentic stove of similar proportions as that on the third floor. The composition of this stove corresponds to the Secession principle of increasing the décor richness upwards. The pedestal is lined with ivory tiles with a corrugated surface. The transition from the massive pedestal to the slender main part is realized through a massive cavetto with a raised Secession-style ornament with blue inserts. The cavetto corners are decorated with pale green leaves. The stove's main part is covered with white tiles and topped with an ivory entablature. The culmination of the stove's decoration is a wide relief frieze with rosy apples amidst pale green leaves against a blue background.

In other premises authentic stoves have not been preserved; instead, massive stoves with pale green tiles of the interwar period were arranged.

Floor Pavement and Parquets

The building has authentic floors. Slabs of black and white artificial marble are placed in staggered diagonal rows in the entryway, staircase, and corridors of the fourth floor. In the second floor rooms and corridors (in particular, in the study located in the bay), typically of the Lviv interiors of the early twentieth century, a parquet flooring in the form of a two-color motif consisting of stylized quatrefoils was arranged. In other premises, an oak parquet floor, no less common at that time, was made in a herringbone manner with borders.

Woodwork

All door and window openings of the building have a preserved authentic Secession-style woodwork, which, however, needs to be cleared and painted in accordance with the colour studies. The door fittings have survived only partially. All windows and door openings are decorated with boiserie panels. In the design section of the building (Łewicki, 2005, 252; Ulam, 1913) one can see that the upper part of the interior doors had panes, decorated with pseudo stained glasses, which have not been preserved.

Stained Glass and Frescoes

As evident from the 1907 photo (Architekt, 1907, 69-70), the staircase windows were decorated with pseudo stained glasses having curvilinear plant ornaments, more dense in the upper part of the window. These stained-glass windows were not preserved; the windows are filled with textured glass instead. The literature (Бірюльов, 2008; Lewicki, 2005, 252) mentions the staircase frescoes. Obviously, it is about these stained-glass windows as the laying of walls with artificial marble and the decoration of ceilings with stucco makes it impossible to have paintings. The woodwork of the staircase windows has simplified geometric shapes, thus emphasizing the fact that the building belongs to the early period of the Secession, when the curved lines of the window profiles were not widespread.

The building's interiors are distorted by introduction of new inharmonius elements, e.g. door grates, non-stylish furniture, partitions destroying the Secession stylistics.