Armuth Miklós - Lőrinczi Zsuzsa (szerk.): A Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Történeti Campusa (Budapest, 2023)
A Kémiai épület - The Chemistry Building Kalmár Miklós
On the completion of construction works, the burning issue of acquiring the furnishing and equipment had to be faced. Hauszmann, now as the rector of the university, suggested sharing the scientific equipment and furniture in proportion to the building costs as he wished to avoid debates over the distribution of financials means allocated for equipment. However, what he achieved wasjust the contrary. Interests of the departments needing more equipment or economizing them combined with demands of the various units needing more or less room immediately clashed. As they had to do with the budget volume (19 Crown/cubic metre of air), there was no other option than to share what was less and less so as to meet ever increasing demands. The professors tried to enforce their own interests. Czigler made a detailed survey to assure the representatives of the departments proving that the usable space of the new building is significantly larger than that of the existing stuctures, and even further areas were released compared to the original and accepted plans. They even tried to shift some of the costs at the expense of the budget of the next (F) building to be built. The designer, who had already been engaged in the revision plans of the F Building, was instructed to speed up design work. As a response to the lack of space and shortage of cash an idea to connect the Department of Electrotechnics and the would-be engines laboratory, which would advantageously reduce the ratio of the area occupied in the Ch Building. This proposal was justified by the substantial energy-demand and the need to house large machinery. The building was used in a versatile way, changing throughout the decades. By eliminating the boiler-room in the cellar, the space with double interior height had to be divided into two parts with an R-C roofing. Later on, the out of use chimneys of the boiler-rooms above the roof were demolished. As the laboratories needed more and more room, the possibility of adding a storey to the Ch Building was considered in 194-1, and Professor Pál Csonka submitted a proposed design for the floor-plan configuration of this wouldbe third storey. For this purpose he also had two visualization designs made a KERT felőli lépcsőház I staircase overlooking garden by using photo-montages. A higher-standard version featured rebuilding the temporarily demolished decorative stone of the cornice and the wooden cupola one storey taller than its original. The other solution as a cheaper one was about the
