Kelecsényi Kristóf - Schmahl Henrik

Henrik Schmahl (1849-1912), who was born near Hamburg but made his career in Budapest, was able to create individual style buildings in the architectural abundance of late historicism and the turn of the century, which became embedded in the public consciousness of a big city and became concepts. In addition to the Uránia and the Paris Court, among the tenement and business buildings he designed, quite a few were novel in some way. He built the first cast-iron frame building in the country, and the first five-story residential building is also named after him. Although Schmahl did not have a higher degree in architecture, the more than a decade he spent with Miklós Ybl, the most significant domestic figure of historicism, with the construction of the Opera House, proved to be a theoretical and practical school that he could rely on throughout his work. He was able to apply the forms of both the Italian and German Renaissance, as well as Gothic and Moorish architecture, at a high level and with good sense. Although he did not break away from historical styles, his adaptation to the rapidly changing needs of the turn of the century and his innovations in the field of engineering show true architectural quality.