dhaa
10-07-2006, 22:37
Architect: Erick van Egeraat associated architects
http://www.eea-architects.com/
built in 2003
The ING project, a multitenant office building that addresses the street with a hyperkinetic facade, makes a striking addition to Budapest, with its tradition of solid, even stolid architecture. Located near landmarks such as the municipal museum, Városliget City Park, and the vast and empty Square of Heroes, the building sits around the corner from the increasingly cosmopolitan Andrassy Boulevard (home of Budapest’s only Apple store). The building’s expressive exterior has already become a symbol of a new era in the city’s architecture. For the developer, the project turned out to be a very good deal: A day after taking possession, ING sold it to Deutsche Bank for a serious profit.
The 270,000-square-foot building, which sits above three levels of underground parking, accommodates public functions on the ground floor, such as a bank and a restaurant, with six floors of office space above (including EEA’s Budapest branch), and a penthouse boardroom. It replaces two Stalinist-style office blocks from the 1950s and is bordered on one side by a Modernist box in the best Communist tradition (which EEA had renovated earlier), and on the other by a 19th-century villa: “It was my intention to bring cohesion to the street without copying the past,” explains van Egeraat. The new building increases in height as it makes the transition from the older villa to the much larger Communist box. Across the entire length of the facade, van Egeraat floated shiny steel ribbons, vestiges of the flowing lines he drew in one of his very first sketches to indicate the continuity of time symbolized by these three buildings.
from Architectural Record (http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/archives/0601ING_office.asp)
Address: Dózsa György Út 84/b
Getting there: The building is very close to Hősök tere (Heroes's Square). So from the center (Oktogon for example) you simply take the beautiful art noveau yellow metro line (M1) and get off at Hősök tere. Once you are in the middle of the square, turn yourself towards the city (back to the Városliget park) and look to the left. You'll spot the ING building some 2 blocks away facing the street that goes along the park.
http://www.eea-architects.com/
built in 2003
The ING project, a multitenant office building that addresses the street with a hyperkinetic facade, makes a striking addition to Budapest, with its tradition of solid, even stolid architecture. Located near landmarks such as the municipal museum, Városliget City Park, and the vast and empty Square of Heroes, the building sits around the corner from the increasingly cosmopolitan Andrassy Boulevard (home of Budapest’s only Apple store). The building’s expressive exterior has already become a symbol of a new era in the city’s architecture. For the developer, the project turned out to be a very good deal: A day after taking possession, ING sold it to Deutsche Bank for a serious profit.
The 270,000-square-foot building, which sits above three levels of underground parking, accommodates public functions on the ground floor, such as a bank and a restaurant, with six floors of office space above (including EEA’s Budapest branch), and a penthouse boardroom. It replaces two Stalinist-style office blocks from the 1950s and is bordered on one side by a Modernist box in the best Communist tradition (which EEA had renovated earlier), and on the other by a 19th-century villa: “It was my intention to bring cohesion to the street without copying the past,” explains van Egeraat. The new building increases in height as it makes the transition from the older villa to the much larger Communist box. Across the entire length of the facade, van Egeraat floated shiny steel ribbons, vestiges of the flowing lines he drew in one of his very first sketches to indicate the continuity of time symbolized by these three buildings.
from Architectural Record (http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/archives/0601ING_office.asp)
Address: Dózsa György Út 84/b
Getting there: The building is very close to Hősök tere (Heroes's Square). So from the center (Oktogon for example) you simply take the beautiful art noveau yellow metro line (M1) and get off at Hősök tere. Once you are in the middle of the square, turn yourself towards the city (back to the Városliget park) and look to the left. You'll spot the ING building some 2 blocks away facing the street that goes along the park.