Armuth Miklós - Lőrinczi Zsuzsa (szerk.): A Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Történeti Campusa (Budapest, 2023)

A Kémiai épület - The Chemistry Building Kalmár Miklós

final removal of these structures. All this remained in blueprint, but the designs are utterly realistic. The main stairway of the southern wing facing the Danube was demolished at a time unknown. On the site of the staircase a new roof was built above the basement and the ground floor, relieving usable floor-space in the cellar, on the ground floor and on the first floor too. By eliminating the symmetry of the garden facade, the outdoor stairs of the main staircase was demolished, along with the gate and its ornate framework.

After the front-line retreated, repairs of the damage done to the site during World War II was launched immediately, under the supervision of Professor László Putnoky. As the cupola-like superstructure of the main facade was damaged most seriously, a decision was made not to reconstruct it. The glazing of the windows along the side facing the Danube was also ruined and Ch. Max. was badly damaged too as its trussing fell in. The tiers were covered with snow, and the furnishing was destroyed. Reconstruction, restoration and renovation launched in the 1940s continued as late as the 1950s. The elevators originally placed far from the main entrance were repositioned from beside the service stairs into the main staircase. In the 1950s the loggias of the southern facade were gradually developed.

First it was György Oláh, later awarded the Nobel Prize, who had the porch glazed in after he had been "exiled" to the second-storey loggia facing the Danube because of his experiments with aggressive fluor compounds. Later on both loggias of the second storey were closed with windows and soon after this, the loggias of the ground floor and the first storey were eliminated. Openings facing the Central Building were bricked in, whilst windows were installed in the side facades.

In 1958 the Public Design Company of the Ministry of Construction made detailed plans for the reconstruction of the timber-frame cupola, which remained in blueprint, for reasons now unknown. In the 1960s, the skylight of the C14 auditorium was roofed in primarily for darkening. The steel-frame of the skylight is still stored in the loft. To respond to the lack of space, departments were closed down gradually, corridors and passages were occupied, which significantly burdened circulation and compromised the generous ground plans designed by Czigler. From the latter half of the 1960s till the late 1980s, the loft above the second storey was developed in several stages. Although this was done without changing the street facades, the design of the new staircase continuing the grand staircase was rather objectionable architecturally. The configuration of rooms surveyed and documented in 1908 was changed during the decades. Both the organisation of the departments and the methodology of education and training was modified meanwhile on several occasions. At the end of the 19th century, the basement contained rooms of the Departments