The challenges of renovating the Paris Court

The renovation of the Paris Court in downtown Budapest has finally been completed. Over 200 companies took part in this magnificent building’s restoration to its former glory.

Magyar Építők took a tour around the freshly renovated building with some of the key developers as their guides.

The new hotel will be part of the Hyatt special hotel chain, the purpose of which is to bring together those hotels that are located in buildings that are unique because of their architecture, history or location. So far, 16 hotels are part of this chain; the latest was opened in the building that hosts the Louvre, but there are plans to establish a hotel inside the Scotland Yard in London.

It took altogether 4.5 years to restore one of Budapest’s most beautiful buildings and to save the values it represents, turning it into a five-star hotel. Some of the most important developers are Market Építő Zrt., Archikon Építésziroda and the Óbuda Group.

The project, however, has been challenging and difficult at times due to the complex tasks and unexpected turns, but the exceptional professionals did their best to restore the deteriorated Paris Court to its former glory – said Sándor Bajnok, Market’s technical director.

The eclectic building was opened in 1913 and once had one of the largest ceramic façades in Europe:

there were around 200 ceramic pieces around each window, adding up to 60-70 thousand pieces. Altogether 10 thousand plates had to be replaced on the façade, out of the hundreds of thousands. This took 100 experts 85 thousand hours.

The replaced pieces were manufactured by the Zsolnay porcelain manufacturer, but since the old recipe was lost, the company had to experiment until they got the ingredients right.

There are 100 windows with leaded glass in the staircase, and the price of one square metre of leaded glass is roughly 200-250 thousand forints (EUR 620-775).

The most beautiful element of the whole building is the lobby, the ceiling of which is electric glass (creating the illusion of natural sunlight in all conditions).