Ferkai András: Housing Estates - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2005)

The Civil Servants' Estate

vants’ estate, consists of the area flanked by Orczy út, Szabóky (today’s Bíró Lajos) utca, Szapáry (today's Bláthy Ottó) utca and Elnök utca. Made by the architectural bureau of the municipality led by Ferenc Devecis, plans for subdivision were approved by the general assembly in January of 1885. The plan divided the area into 117 construction plots, leaving five-fathom-wide streets in between. Before the year was out, surface levelling and canalization had been completed and the streets were macadamized, too. Construction work started in 1886 after individual plots were distributed by lottery. Contractors were prepared to finance the construction on condition their expenses and a profit of 20 percent were reimbursed in a lump sum. Not even the wealthiest civil servants had that amount of cash at their disposal. Architect János Bobula was contracted, asking for no more than 30 percent in advance and the owners' permission to take out bank loans and mortgage it on the completed property. Headed by Leó Lánczy, the Pest Commercial Bank was willing to provide credit to the amount of half the entire property value, which sum, including an annual interest of 6.25 percent, was repayable within thirty-eight and a half years.

The comprehensive plan prescribed that the detached or terraced houses be built on the streetside fronts of the i8o-to-400-square-fathom plots. More elaborately decorated and larger villas were built on the larger plots as well as the corner ones. As no further specifications were made by the municipality regarding the overall streetscape, the final architectural appearance of the Civil Servants' Estate emerged spontaneously. The prospective owners were allowed to decide whether to abide by Bobula's standard designs or commission their own architects to prepare individual plans. Bobula’s smallest standard design was made for a single-storey house without a basement, containing two street-side rooms, another one on the courtyard front, and a lavatory opening from the street-side verandah, but there was no bathroom. The second largest standard design still had one storey above ground but already included a basement and contained three street-side rooms as well as the one overlooking the courtyard; furthermore, a bathroom was added. The third, also four-room, type had its first floor raised above ground level, which allowed for the inclusion of a janitor's lodge, a shop or a workshop in the basement. The largest design was for a two-storey building with two self-contained flats, plus a janitor’s lodge and a laundry in the basement. More than a third of all proprietors involved in the first phase commissioned Bobula, while the rest of the buildings were raised to individual designs made by other architects or master-builders (including József Ámon, Károly Bachmann, Elek Hofhauser, Antal Hudentz and István Nagy). Despite all that variety of design, the overall impression made by the estate is not one of

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