Bedřich Bendelmayer

One of the pioneers of Prague Art Nouveau, Bedřich Bendelmayer was born in Prague on the 8th April 1872. He studied architecture under Friedrich Ohmann at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, whose studio he also worked in for a short time after his studies. In his architecture practice, Bendelmayer often collaborated with his former fellow students – with Rudolf Němec at first, later on with Alois Dryák, with whom he they had a joint design studio, and also with Emil Weichert, with whom he took part in several competitions. He succeeded Dryák in the position of the main engineer of Quido Bělský’s construction company until being dismissed after a dispute with the director. He took part in a great number of both national and international architecture competitions (including for the building of Měšťanská beseda in Pilsen), and was a member of the Prague Union of Creative Artists. 

Bendelmayer’s first projects were still influenced by Historicism, most of all by Neo-Renaissance (the apartment buildings U České královny in Hradec Králové and U Sv. Jiří in Prague-Holešovice, designed in joint collaboration with Rudolf Němec). After Friedrich Ohmann left for Vienna in 1899, Bendelmayer, together with Alois Dryák, took part in finishing Ohmann’s project of Hotel Central in Prague New Town, which is considered the second Art Nouveau building in Prague. Subsequently, Bendelmayer shifted towards Wagnerian Art Nouveau, which his designs reflected until the beginning of WWI. Among his most important realisations of that time are the facade of Arcivévoda Štěpán Hotel on Wenceslas Square, Prague from the year 1903 (now Grand Hotel Evropa), the apartment building with shops and studios U Prašné brány no. 1078 and 1079/I (which he worked on together with Emil Weichert in the years 1903–1904), Hvězda Palace on Wenceslas Square in Prague from the years 1911–1913, and a reconstruction of the Savings Bank of the Royal City of Pilsen from 1915. During this creative stage, which included the design of the Pilsen Municipal Spa from 1914, Bendelmayer also designed many apartment houses in Prague.

In the 1920s, he received several commissions for public buildings, in particular for banks and courthouses, and his style moved towards monumentalising Neo–Classicism. Probably the best-known buildings from this period are the Palace of Justice in Prague-Pankrác – the largest courthouse of its time in the country, and the former Czech Industrial Bank – at the time the most modern bank in Prague. 

Bedřich Bendelmayer died in Prague on the 20th April 1932.

AP

1897–1899 
Apartment house no. 675 U Sv. Jiří / Belvedere on Kamenická Street, Prague-Holešovice (together with Rudolf Němec)

1898
Design of Měšťanská beseda in Pilsen (3rd place in competition, not realised)

1899
Apartment house no. 310 U České královny at Eliščino nábřeží in Hradec Králové (together with Rudolf Němec)

1899–1900
Hotel Central in Hybernská Street, Prague (project by Friedrich Ohmann, collaboration Alois Dryák)

1903
Facade of Arcivévoda Štěpán Hotel in St. Wenceslas Square, Prague (together with Quido Bělský, Bohumil Hübschmann, Jan Letzl and Alois Dryák; nowadays Grand Hotel Evropa)

1903–1904 
Apartment building with shops no. 1078 a 1079/I on the corner of U Prašné brány and Celetná Streets in Prague (together with Emil Weichert)

1905–1906
Apartment building no. 203 U první reduty on the corner of Břehová and Pařížská Streets in Prague (together with Karel Manda)

1906
Design of a new shooting range of the city guard house in Pilsen (1st place in competition; together with Emil Weichert; not realised)

1911
Apartment building with shops no. 390 on Anglická Street, Prague-Vinohrady

1911–1913 
Hvězda Palace on Wenceslas Square in Prague (later the headquarters of the Melantrich Publishing House) 

1922–1924
Josef Kainar Grammar school in Hlučín

1923
Family house no. 606 on Bubenečská Street, Prague-Bubeneč

1923–1924
City Hall in Osijek (Croatia)

1925–1928
Regional Court in Klatovy (now a District Court)

1920s
Regional Court in Chrudim (now a District Court)
Palace of the Continental Insurance Company on Spálená Street, Prague

1927
Design of the Prague Commodities and Stock Exchange (2nd place in competition; not realised)
Design of a bridge across the Nusle Valley, Prague (prize in competition; not realised)

1927–1933 
Czech Industrial Bank no. 854 on Na Příkopě Street, Prague (1st design as early as 1920)

1928–1930
Palace of Justice in Prague-Pankrác (design 1926; now the Supreme Court and Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office)

1929
Design of Živnostenská banka Na Příkopech in Prague (not realised)