The Most Beautiful McDonald's in the World

When one thinks of sensitive rehabilitation and reuse of historic structures, McDonald's is not usually a company name that immediately comes to mind.  The American fast food company, however, deserves a great deal of credit for its elegantly-implemented restaurant in the historic Nyugati Train Station (Nyugati Pályaudvar) in Budapest:

The beautiful iron and brick Beaux-Arts train station was originally designed by August de Serres and built by the Eiffel Company.  The station first opened on August 28th, 1877 (12 years before Gustave Eiffel would go on to build his famous Tower in Paris for the 1889 Exposition Universelle).  The train station features a soaring, airy iron-ribbed central hall and a series of majestic and well-organized passenger ticketing and waiting spaces:

The station is embedded seamlessly into Budapest's urban fabric and fronts directly onto the sidewalk of the Grand Ring Boulevard (Nagykörút).  For this reason, the station is very convenient for passengers to access by foot, street car (Villamos), and bicycle.  As with many well-designed urban train stations, the vast majority of passengers arrive by these means, rather than by automobile:

During Hungary's post-WWII decades behind the Iron Curtain the Nyugati train station, like many structures in Budapest, grew in need of renovation.  The McDonald's corporation was one of the very first Western companies to establish itself in Budapest during Hungary's transition away from Communism upon its declaration as a Republic on October 23rd, 1989.  McDonalds' very visible location in one of the main train stations in Budapest was a potent symbol of the country's re-connection with the West:

The McDonald's corporation deserves accolades for the careful manner in which it painstakingly restored the architecture of the Nyugati Train Station's former dining hall, preserving the gorgeously-detailed original exterior as well as virtually the entire elegantly vaulted and ornamented interior.  This respect of the train station's magnificent historic architecture has earned the restaurant the affectionate moniker among locals as "The most beautiful McDonald's in the world".

Note: Click here to see my post on: The Most Beautiful Home Depot in the World!

A Water Tower Can Be A Delightful Landmark?

Here's an example!

Budapest's Margaret Island sits in the middle of the Danube River as it runs through the City.  The island was once settled during the Medieval period as a religious center, but during more recent history has evolved into a verdant reprieve - filled with parks, gardens, recreation and cultural facilities utilized by the whole city - similar to New York's Central Park.

One of the main landmarks of Margaret Island is its famous water tower. Constructed in 1911, it was designed in a stunning Art Nouveau / Secessionist style by the Hungarian architect Rezső Vilmos Ray.  Ray remarkably achieved both the functional utility of reliable water supply to the island, while also creating a breathtakingly beautiful lookout tower designed to give visitors sweeping views:

The 187 foot (57 meter) high water tower has a capacity of 158,503 gallons (600,000 liters), and was remarkably also the first building in Hungary to make use of reinforced concrete, a new technology at the time.  

The beauty of the architectural expression of the water tower has made it a universally cherished local landmark. It has been incorporated into a marvelous new open air theater and underwent a renovation in 2012.  It is open to visitors to this day as a lookout tower.