Gerle János: Palaces of Money - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

THE FLATTENED, SUSPENDED GLASS DOME COVERING THE ATRIUM In the centre of the first part there is a three-storey formal courtyard covered with a glass roof, and it is from here that the foyer, the cashier’s hall, the decorative stairway, and an addition by Alpár, the ex­change counter open. The courtyard surrounded by open corridors on the upper floor is one of the finest spaces of Hungarian architecture from the turn of the century; with its dignity, elegance and the wealth of the materials used, it has a place among the timeless achievements of architecture. In the first-floor banister the puppet-like figures carved out of colour-streaked stone, which are both dignified and playful, and the weighty, solemn balusters on the second floor carved from green marble, combine to form a composition remarkable by international comparison, and transpose THE ROUND FOYER OF AlPÁR’S ADDITION TO THE PeST COMMERCIAL BaNK 42

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