Adaptation of the residential and administrative building of the Eisner & Levit company
1933–1934

In 1905, Adolf Eisner and Leopold Levit, Pilsner entrepreneurs of Jewish origin, founded the “Eisner & Levit” factory producing wire, steel wool and screws. They settled in Lobzy near Pilsen, where they built production premises and a Historicist villa in the same year. Pilsner builders Václav and Josef Pašek undertook the realisation of the house – and probably also the development of the project.

The Pašek brothers situated the building on a sloping plot in the northwest corner of the factory premises adjacent to the natural surroundings of the Úslava River. They conceived it on an almost square ground plan with a steep hipped roof and a cylindrical staircase tower, which is the most prominent feature of the building. It is not only the tower's pyramidal roof that gives the villa its historicising character, but also the distinctive stone cladding of the basement, made of Cyclopean masonry segmented by brick strips (the height of the basement is extraordinary due to the sloping terrain; this is why the feature strongly underlines the traditionalist expression of the house).

In 1933, Leopold Levit commissioned the Pilsen architect Leo Meisl (also of Jewish origin) to design modernisation and adaptation of the villa, which was to be subsequently inhabited by the new partner of the company Karel Levit. The construction changes carried out by the builder Karel Krůta in 1933-1934 mainly concerned the ground floor, where the architect rearranged the partition walls to make the interior layout meet the high demands on modern living and the changing taste in architecture. The layout centred around a luxuriously equipped living room with a marble fireplace, wooden panelling and built-in furniture, connected with the dining room by a glass sliding door. The architect extended the house towards the garden with a large veranda or winter garden, lit by sliding American windows and entered from the parents' bedroom and the children’s room. A new bathroom was placed between the two rooms (the building's adaptation involved the construction of a sewerage system). The former laundry in the basement was turned into a living room and a room for workers.

In the villa’s exterior, the modernisation manifested itself not only with the Functionalist approach to the design of the veranda, broken up by two large windows and supported by three reinforced concrete columns, but also by the modification of the side gables, which obtained a rectangular stepped shape.

Karel Levit started working in the company in 1935. Making use of his experience from the USA, he modernised the factory and in 1939 transformed it into the joint-stock company “Pilsen Screw and Wire Goods Factory”. However, its operations were soon affected by the events of World War II. In 1948, national administration was imposed on the factory, and from 1952 the company operated as the Regional Repair Shop for Machinery and Tractor Stations (at present the premises are occupied by a company producing ventilation equipment). The villa gradually fell into disrepair and was overshadowed by a four-storey apartment building built in Živnostenská Street in 1974-1975.

In 2009, this once first-class building became a boarding house for the socially excluded. However, this situation only lasted briefly and the villa was abandoned again. Fortunately, valuable parts of the interior – especially the lounge and partially the dining room – have been preserved in almost authentic form to this day. However, their condition requires costly repair and restoration of missing parts.
 

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