Vul. Universytetska, 1 – university building

ID: 2424

The building at the corner of Universytetska and Sichovykh Striltsiv streets was constructed in 1906-1907 as an additional wing of the monumental Galician Sejm (Diet) building. The project was designed by architect Adolf Kamienobrodzki who used the austere features of the Neo-Renaissance style typical of Austro-Hungarian administrative architecture there. Now the building functions as an academic building of the Lviv National Ivan Franko University.

History

In the late 19^th century a large plot under conscription number 717 2/4 was the core of the housing in the block encircled by Słowackiego (later Marszałkowska, now Universytetska), Mickiewicza (now Lystopadovoho Chynu), Kościuszki (now Kostiushka), and Trzeciego Maja (now Sichovykh Striltsiv) streets. In 1877-1881 the Galician Sejm building was erected on this parcel under a project designed by Juliusz Hochberger, the city architect of Lviv; now this is the main building of the Lviv National Ivan Franko University located on Universytetska street 1.

As of the mid-1900s, virtually all plots in the Sejm block were used for new buildings: three new banks and two residential houses had been built there. The only exception was the northwestern corner of the parcel no. 717 2/4, at the intersection of Marszałkowska and Mickiewicza streets, which was vacant till 1906. It was in this year that the construction of a new, northern wing of the Galician Sejm’s offices started there. The architectural project was designed by Adolf Kamienobrodzki, an architect whose professional career was linked with the technical bureau of the so-called Crown Land Department (Wydział Krajowy), the Sejm’s executive body. Due to his official duties, Kamienobrodzki took part in designing almost all objects constructed at the expense of the Galician local budget, including administrative buildings and hospitals.

So it was Adolf Kamienobrodzki who designed a project of a new wing which was to be added to the main building of the Sejm; on 31 March 1906 the project was endorsed by the city authorities (DALO 2/2/1223:1-11). The construction was finished the following year.

Till the end of the World War I the corner building at the intersection of Marszałkowska and Mickiewicza streets was occupied by the Sejm offices. Later, in the 1920s-1930s, it was owned by the Jan Kazimierz University. In the following decades it also functioned as a university building.

At present, two faculties of the Lviv National Ivan Franko University, the Mechanical-Mathematical Faculty and the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, are located in the wing at the intersection of Universytetska and Lystopadovoho Chynu streets.

Architecture

The building occupies a corner plot at the intersection of Universytetska and Lystopadovoho Chynu streets. It adjoins the Lviv National Ivan Franko University main building’s left avant-corps on Universytetska street 1 (the former Sejm building) and the western firewall of the townhouse on Lystopadovoho Chynu street 5. The building has four floors and an additional tier of semi-basement premises in the high basement story. The two façades (west and north) are located at right angles; between them, there is a corner cut at an angle of 45 degrees.

The west façade, which has eight window axes and two slightly protruding parts on the edges, faces Universytetska street and the Ivan Franko park. A fenced lawn is arranged in front of it. The 6-window north façade goes along the Lystopadovoho Chynu street regulation line. It has a slightly protruding part of the wall near the corner and a portal of the passage leading to the courtyard.

The window openings on floors 3-4 are supplemented with shaped trimmings. The row of the third floor windows is accentuated by triangular pediments. The upper cornice is supported by moulded consoles. The façades are decorated with banded rustication on the whole perimeter; the stripes are more massive on the two lower floors. The façade compositional structure is dominated by horizontal division. The building has a hipped roof with lucarnes.

The main building is L-shaped in plan; it has a tract of offices opening into a long corridor. A short additional row of premises branches off at a right angle from its western part. This row divides the courtyard into two small parts. The staircase is arranged in the depth, at the L-shaped structure’s inner angle. The building is connected by corridor passages with the neighbouring university buildings: the Lviv National Ivan Franko University main building on Universytetska street 1 and the townhouse on Lystopadovoho Chynu street 5.

Due to its austere Neo-Renaissance decorations the Adold Kamienobrodzki’s project resembles the style of the buildings designed by Otto Wagner in the 1880s. At the same time, the Secession (Art Nouveau) motifs appear in details (e.g., gratings above the hipped roof constructions, stairs railing) showing that the building was actually constructed in 1906-1907.

Related Places

Description

Vul. Universytetska, 1 – Lviv Ivan Franko National University main building

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Description

Vul. Sichovykh Striltsiv, 16 – university building (former bank)

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Personalities

Adolf Kamienobrodzki – an architect who designed a project of the Galician Sejm offices’ north wing located at the intersection of Marszałkowska and Mickiewicza streets.
Juliusz Hochberger – a city architect of Lviv who designed a project of the Galician Sejm building constructed in 1877-1881 (now the Lviv National Ivan Franko University main building on Universytetska street 1).

Sources

State Archive of Lviv Oblast (DALO) 2/2/1223.

Material compiled by Ihor Zhuk