Gerle János: Palaces of Money - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
is that of the Mercantile Bill and Property Investment Bank, which occupied the floorspace at no. 24 József Attila utca. 5. Mew buildings. These are usually built in an inner- city area on empty plots flanked by two existing buildings, which are themselves parts of a continuous row, and therefore there is only one attractive facade for each of these new constructions-one single facade dominated by one single motif accentuated by the materials and colours used. These buildings tend to be characterised by the builders’ efforts at distancing their creations from their surroundings. And yet, despite all efforts to achieve individuality, most of these buildings are hard to tell apart from others of their kind. An office block belonging to Agrobank is in an old narrow street of the inner city at no. 33 Bástya utca, and the management office of the Újpest section of the Postal Bank has been erected in Váci út. Budapest Bank’s inner city management centre has been built at no. 16/a Király utca among an increasing number of office buildings in a neighbourhood which was envisioned to become the entertainment centre of Pest. An elegant building housing the computer pool of the Hungarian National Bank was constructed across the street from the Postal Savings Bank. The Ybl and Civic Bank at the corner of Szív utca and Szondi utca is the result of additions whose dimensions far exceeded the limits of a regular reconstruction. The Hungarian Credit Bank has erected a new office block at no. 13 Szilágyi Erzsébet fasor. These are typical but random examples. The new banks and their branch offices are, and this follows from their function, present in the tissue of the city as incursions of foreign elements. At the turn of the century considerations of operation and maintenance made it desirable that the ground floor should be occupied by shops. Security, a visual emphasis on security as well as the confidence that it is there, is now more important. Tinted windows are covered by curtains and lamellae, uniformed guards stand in the doorways, while the furnishings are dominated by chromium- bright metal frames around bullet-proof glass protecting the tellers. Blind shop-windows fill the spaces between neighbouring shop fronts to hide bank branches along the Great Boulevard (at Western Station and Oktogon), while the Elizabeth Town and Teresa Town banks stand in a file of concrete blocks permanently obstructing communication between the passage- courts of the recent past. In short, one novel feature 67
