In the interwar period, the expansion of the city continued, with its residential parts spilling beyond both the Cheb–Domažlice and the Klatovy branches of the railway line in the Říšké Suburb area by the end of the 19th century. In the northwest corner of the newly emerging Doudlevce district, new residential blocks between the streets Přeštická, Lukavická, Tělocvičná and Radobyčická were laid out in the early 1930s. The development involved rows of modest, usually three-storey apartment and family houses. Although their designs were the work of a variety of architecture studios commissioned by private clients, these buildings all have a similar character. This is also the case with the houses in the western front of Přeštická Street. The two-storey buildings are characterised by simple minimalist facades, typically broken up only by rectangular windows and complemented by avant-corps, a bay window or a large staircase window, cornices or subtle bands.
The apartment building of Miss Emílie Kuszbachová and Messrs Hugo Popel and Rudolf Popp was designed by the builders Jan Baxa and Vojtěch Sedlák, from Újezd near Pilsen. Their construction company also realised this design between June and October 1933. The street facade of the building with the cellars below is dominated by a narrow two-storey bay enclosed by two bands of windows from three sides. While the foot of the bay is lined with a cornice separating the ground from the other two floors, the upper section is crowned with a wide console of the cornice located just below the edge of the gabled roof. Mainly due to these two relief elements, creating a trick of light and shade on the smooth facade, the house acquired a distinctly Modernist character standing out among most of the surrounding buildings. The architects of the house composed the garden facade as axially symmetrical; only a two-tier avant-corps emerges from it, into which a staircase is placed, and the windows of hallways and toilets into its recessing part. Only the balconies in its left part disrupt the symmetry of the rear facade. Each upper floor housed one one-bedroom and one two-bedroom apartment with living rooms facing the street in the usual manner, while the kitchens (in the case of the larger apartments with balconies mentioned above), hall and bathroom were directed towards the courtyard.
Today, the residential houses on Přeštická Street are an example of the not-very-sensitive approach to buildings of the 1930s. Since the houses are not heritage listed, the method of reconstruction depends entirely on the taste and financial means of their owners. During general reconstructions, the facades are usually fitted with insulation and their plaster is painted in often distinct tones; original wooden windows and doors are, with a few exceptions, being replaced with plastic ones. Due to the thickness of the contact insulation window frames often remain sunk deep beneath the new face of the perimeter wall. Although the buildings still provide quality housing, their appearance that once corresponded to a fine standard for their time is more or less damaged.
LV
Emílie Kuszbachová, Hugo Popel, Rudolf Popp