Ice Skating Pavilion as Civic Architecture

The best new traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs) feature a sprinkling of extraordinary focal architecture amid a setting of more ordinary background buildings.  Focal architecture provides visual spice to the physical design of a neighborhood and results in landmarks that make a place more memorable and legible.

This can be seen in the image I drew below of the civic meeting hall in Dover, Kohl & Partners' Lowcountry project Kerr Village:

It is often a challenge, though, to find uses to inhabit these focal sites.

Here is a beautiful historic example for consideration, that provides warmth and joy during the colder months of the year.  The Pavilion of the City Park Ice Rink (Városligeti Műjégpálya) in Budapest:

The gorgeous Neo-Baroque Pavilion building was designed by Imre Francsek in 1895 for Hungary's Millennium Celebrations marking the 1000th anniversary of the Magyar conquest of 895.

The Pavilion features a grand tripartite central mass crowned by elaborate compound domes with finials.  This central mass is flanked by two smaller octagonal domed masses connected by long linking arms.  The resulting focal yet broad composition embraces the ice skating ring and imbues the large space with a sense of charm, intimacy and warmth.  (To see a more in depth discussion of the articulation of architectural massing types click here). 

A historic image of the Pavilion can be seen in this 1895 commemorative etching of the grounds of the Hungarian Millennium Celebrations.  The Pavilion is at the bottom center of the image just to the right of the exedra of the Heroes' Square monument and the bridge marking the grand entrance to the Exposition grounds:

   
The ice skating rink and Pavilion were so popular during the Millennium Celebrations, they were afterward made into permanent fixtures of the City Park.  

Today, the Pavilion building still houses ice skating equipment rentals and changing facilities, as well as a restaurant, cultural center and an events hall.  While it continues to serve one of Europe's largest ice skating rinks in the winter time, the Pavilion is now also used for a wide variety of cultural programs throughout the entire year.

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!