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Austrian Postal Savings Bank (Postsparkasse)

Austrian Postal Savings Bank (Postsparkasse)

Otto Wagner

Photo: Gryffindor · CC BY 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Vienna, Austria
Client / Owner
Österreichische Postsparkasse
Year
Completed 1906
Access
Public

Otto Wagner designed the Austrian Postal Savings Bank in Vienna for the Österreichische Postsparkasse, now BAWAG P.S.K. It was built from 1904 to 1906 and opened on December 17, 1906, with an extension from 1910 to 1912. The style is Vienna Secession, a branch of Art Nouveau. It covers an entire city block and rises up to eight stories.

It used reinforced concrete, then a new technique, with marble and aluminum facade elements and granite at the lower and upper levels. The ornamental rivets were long thought to be dummy nails, but material analysis found the bolts helped secure the marble slabs. A skylit atrium hall has a glass floor and slim steel columns, and cast aluminum sculptures by Othmar Schimkowitz stand 14 feet (4.3 m) tall.

The building escaped damage in World War II. It houses the BAWAG P.S.K. headquarters and customer services, and since 2005 a museum devoted to Otto Wagner.

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