Page 63 - Sajo ENG

1932–1934

FOUR-STOREY

RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

6 and 8 Vásáry István Street

He designed the staircase of both 16-apartment buildings in the middle of the main
façade, while the central façade of the building on the left, at No. 6, deliberately
mimics the effect of a New York skyscraper with its vertical staircase windows and a
stepped attic. The bands below and between the windows of the same block were
once decorated with horizontal strips of mortared plaster but they were removed
during later restoration work. Both buildings have the same steeply deepening
profiled gate and an iron flag holder rising from the roof.

The building on the right was completed two years later; in just sixty days, according
to family recollections. Coincidentally, it closely resembles the Art Deco buildings
on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach (1933–1942) with its symmetry and horizontal,
streamlined plaster bands as well as the rounded-off corners of its balconies with
solid parapets and pipe railings.

Sajó carefully designed even the smallest details of the building’s interior. He had
geometric pipe and flat iron railings and window grilles as well as red stone staircases
made for the elegant staircase.

He lived in this apartment building, which he once owned, with his wife and two
daughters. His approximately 130 square-meter, first-floor luxury apartment had
an excellent layout, running hot water, central heating, and a design studio with a
separate entrance. He made the interior of the apartment with a bathroom, walk-in
wardrobe and a maid’s room more spacious by joining the spaces in a clever way: he
used a door that slid into the wall to replace the adjoining wall. The furnishings with
a black lacquer finish, the built-in cabinets, the blue and white kitchen furniture and
the orange-red and blue tile stove were also designed by István Sajó.

The two apartment buildings once had a shared recreational garden with a children’s
pool and garden sculptures. Today only the courtyard fountain and garden angel
statue of the building at No. 6 remain.

63