Investors in smaller houses in interwar Pilsen were not only individuals but also cooperatives and building companies who were also selling the finished objects. This is the case with the two-storey terraced house at 87 Mánesova Street, which was realised by the Trade-Civic Building Cooperative for Pilsen and Surrounds for a private client (the so-called “expectant”). The morphology of the house, probably designed by the Pilsen architect and builder Rudolf Pelc, illustrates the search for a suitable style of the early 1920s. Despite the ambivalence of the style and rather modest scale, the house was to represent its future owner, the then director of municipal authorities, with dignity.
The building had, following the pattern of apartment houses, a two-tract layout – living rooms facing the street, service rooms facing the garden. The front was originally to have had a number of Decorativist elements, yet these were gradually reduced. The traditionally conceived ground floor, with its Neo-Renaissance style balustrade at the base and window chambranles, is separated from the first floor by a cornice with a distinctive dentil, a semi-circular risalit is situated in the centre of the front facade. A pronounced crown moulding is decorated with a dentil as well and there are triangular dormers protruding from the pitched roof.
LV
Investor
Trade-Civic Building Cooperative for Pilsen and Surrounds
Sources
- Archiv Odboru stavebně správního, Technický úřad Magistrátu města Plzně