After the success of the **** Hotel RESIDENCE IZABELLA project in Izabella Street, the developer ORCO Property Group have comissioned Schön Architect/ArkTOON’s to design 15,000sqm fo mixed used residential, adaptive reuse development in the highly prestigous, World Heritage site on the historic Andrassy Street. The subject site consists two sites adjoining along their rear boundaries on the corner of Andrassy Street and Izabella Street. The historic building on Andrássy Street (68 Andrassy Street) was heritage listed, while the Izabella wing buildings eclectic facade was under heritage protection, and based on the heritage jury panel requirements the facade had to be retained. The development consists 77 luxury residential units, 4 retail spaces, a fitness centre with a swimming pool, and 84 underground parking on three levels. The project went through assessment process at five different juries and design review panels, including Local and Capital City Juries, National Architectural Design jury, and two Heritage Juries.
The original palace
The building was built for private residences in 1878 and was designed by János Bobula. It operated as a school from 1951 to the present day (Erkel Ferenc Primary School and Gymnázium), then it was privately owned and thus it became possible to restore its original function. The building has a basement, a ground floor and two floors, and its cornice height matches the adjoining buildings on Andrássy út. On the street front, the traditional suspended corridor with two and a half tracts is replaced by a closed traffic corridor. The short courtyard wings have one tract, without a hanging corridor. The building is based on masonry bricks, with a brick vaulted ceiling on the basement level and on the ground floor. The ascending load-bearing structure is a masonry brick wall and pillars, the I. and II. the slab above the first floor is a Prussian glass vault between steel beams, and the closing slab is a studded wooden beam slab, reinforced with a later layer of concrete. The building has a high roof, the street wing has a gable roof, and the courtyards have semi-gable roofs. The general structural system of high roofs is a tie beam system supported at four points. The main staircase has a cantilever step system with a wrought iron railing.

Floor plan design
The cubic capacity of the existing building has not changed. Galleries were placed in the rooms on the ground floor and first floor with a ceiling height that allowed this - where justified by the floor plan and architecturally permissible. The apartments located in the high-ceilinged attic have also been extended with a gallery.
The traffic system of the building was created by keeping the existing staircase and reconstructing it in a contemporary way. The stair arms of the attic side staircase, which was added later, and the ground floor passage were dismantled. The access to the basement and the attic was made possible by the organic extension of the main staircase up and down, the new staircases have a different character from the existing ones, and are characterized by a structure that allows the existing walls of the staircase to prevail. The former servant's staircase was demolished.
A new block was built next to the north wall of the western courtyard wing, and is accessed through the existing building. On the northern and eastern borders of the site, with a passage between them, two new wings were built, each with a smoke-free staircase. The old building wing contains 5 apartments per floor, two on the ground floor and two in the attic. In the new building wings, there are two and one apartment per floor. Most of the apartments have one or two bedrooms, with the exception of a few studios and three- or four-bedroom apartments.
Each of the newly built apartments has a balcony, using the existing terraces in the existing building. In the existing building, in the spiral space of the staircase, in the two new wings of the building, we placed 1 elevator each as an accessory to the staircase.

The facade of the Andrássy út building was reconstructed in a contemporary manner. Under the existing colonnade, we created two store entrances with understated, modern doors and windows. The new, courtyard building parts create a contrast with their simpler, flat-roofed, plastered masses and vertically proportioned openings. We landscaped the courtyard with an irregular layout in the interior of the block.
In Izabella Street, the former fire department building was demolished, except for the right-hand section of its facade with a closed balcony, which remained at the request of the heritage protection authority in front of the facade of the new building wing, which has a completely independent structure. The restored, propped-up turn-of-the-century facade protects the apartments behind it and their balconies from the noise and dust of Izabella Street. A modern facade (with a garage exit) was added to the left section of the street front, which is separated from the preserved part of the building by a narrow passage closed by a glass door. The passage also makes the inner garden accessible from Izabella Street, breaking the traditional closedness of the block.

Parking
A three-story underground parking lot has been created under the northern half of the lot, which can be accessed via the adjoining lot on Izabella Street. We built a total of 118 parking spaces on three levels and two lots, and we are also creating 2 parking spaces for motorcycles on each level.