Historia

The building belonged to the National Bank of Poland. It was designed in 1927 and built in 1928-1929. The design was created by Stanisław Filasiewicz from Warsaw, Eng. of Architecture.

Description

The structure is located at the intersection of 3 Maja Street with 10 Lutego Street, in an excellent location in the city centre, on a plot that has not been fully developed. On the eastern side of the bank is a garden fenced off from the street with a brick fence (perhaps, the development of the unoccupied part of the plot was planned for the future). The structure is L-shaped and consists of two equal rectangles superimposed at an angle of slightly more than 90 degrees so that they have a common corner. This common part (on a square plan) was adapted for use as a banking hall, the northern wing for offices, and the lower eastern wing for housing for employees. The main banking part of the building has three storeys, but contains a piano nobile which is two storey high; the northern wing is of the same height, but it has four storeys. The residential part is lower, but it was designed as a four-storey structure. Both façade of the wings of the building have four axes and were designed by analogy; the difference lies only in an unequal height of both parts. They have a symmetrical layout with respect to the corner main part. The façade of that part has five axes and features a corner recessed portico, which can be accessed via two pier arcades. The top storey contains a corner terrace with a stone balustrade along the axis of the arcaded entrance. The façade of the ground floor are decorated with rusticated horizontal strips, which pass into the rusticated finishes of the entrance arcades in the corner. Cornices consistently separate the piano nobile in the corner and extend further on the façades of both wings, where they cover two storeys (two rows of window openings). The crowning cornice is a classical entablature with mutules. Above them is the top attic storey (only above the main and northern parts). The roof on the building is flat, covered with a roofing felt; the roof truss is made of wood. The floors of the main room are marble, whereas the driveway is covered with terracotta tiles. Other rooms and corridors feature wooden parquet. The building is fitted with a monolithic double landing staircase made of reinforced concrete and marble, with a marble balustrade. The doors are made of oak wood; the ground floor of the main part is fitted with rotating, frame-and-panel, oak, and crystal glass doors. The building also contains hinged, single- or double-leaf, frame-and-panel, oak, and crystal glass doors.

The interior features its original lavish décor reminiscent of the nineteenth-century classicism.

The structure is not used and there is no visitor access.

compiled by Dorota Hryszkiewicz-Kahlau, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Gdańsk, 28-05-2015.

Bibliography

• Sołtysik M.J., Studium architektoniczno-urbanistycznej waloryzacji Gdyni do roku 1939 w granicach administracyjnych miasta z roku 1970, cz.II, osadnictwo przedmiejskie i miasto, t.2. waloryzacja Śródmieścia; Gdańsk, 1986;
• Sołtysik M.J., Na styku dwóch epok. Architektura gdyńskich kamienic okresu międzywojennego, Gdynia 2003;
• Sołtysik M.J., Modernistyczna Gdynia - dziedzictwo lat międzywojennych, [w:] Renowacje i zabytki 2010, nr 4 (36), s.60-73;
• Karta ewidencyjna, Bank, Jacek Lewiński, 1983 r.