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

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