1 Ilica Street (, meaning "Skyscraper in Ilica") is a
building
A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, a ...
located in
Ilica Street overlooking
Ban Jelačić Square
Ban Jelačić Square (; ) is the central square of the city of Zagreb, Croatia, named after ban Josip Jelačić. Its official name is and is colloquially called .
The square is located below Zagreb's old city cores Gradec and Kaptol, just di ...
in the
Lower Town area of
Zagreb
Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...
,
Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
. In Croatian, the building is colloquially known under the generic title ''Neboder'' (lit. "Skyscraper") as it was the first business skyscraper in the country.
History
The building, designed by the trio of Slobodan Jovičić, Josip Hitil and Ivan Žuljević, was built between 1957 and 1958 and was officially inaugurated on 22 August 1959, when
Većeslav Holjevac was mayor of Zagreb.
It was the second tallest building in
Yugoslavia
, common_name = Yugoslavia
, life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation
, p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia
, flag_p ...
at the time of its completion,
and it was the first building in the country which featured an aluminium
façade
A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face".
In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...
(aluminium sheets for the building were manufactured at the
Utva
Utva Aviation Industry (), commonly known as UTVA is a Serbian manufacturer of general aviation aircraft, subsidiary of Yugoimport SDPR, headquartered in Pančevo.
History
Utva was founded on 5 June 1937 in Zemun, since 1940 located in Panče ...
aircraft factory in
Pančevo
Pančevo (Serbian Cyrillic: Панчево, ; ; ; ; ) is a list of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the South Banat District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. It is located on the shores of rivers Timiș (ri ...
).
Other notable high-rises built earlier in Zagreb include the nine-story modernist
Löwy Building built in 1933 and the so-called ''Wooden Skyscraper'' designed by
Drago Ibler - but since they were both residential buildings which resembled skyscrapers in design but not in function or size, the sixteen-story 1 Ilica Street is regarded as the first "bona fide skyscraper" built in Zagreb and Yugoslavia.
The principal investors were
Končar and Ferimport, two large state-owned companies. The building later housed Ferimport offices, but it also featured an
observation deck
An observation deck, observation platform, or viewing platform is an elevated sightseeing platform usually situated upon a tall architectural structure, such as a skyscraper or observation tower. Observation decks are sometimes enclosed from we ...
and a restaurant on its top floor (later converted into a short-lived disco club in the early 1990s) and a small
shopping arcade
An arcade is a succession of contiguous arches, with each arch supported by a colonnade of columns or piers. Exterior arcades are designed to provide a sheltered walkway for pedestrians; they include many loggias, but here arches are not an esse ...
which was built around the base of the building, connecting Ilica, Gajeva, Bogovićeva and Petrićeva streets. The observation deck was open to the public for decades, but it was fenced by security railings in 1967 after a man committed suicide by jumping off it and landing on a woman passing by, who was also killed.
On 28 November 1970, the day before former Yugoslav
Republic Day
Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics.
List
January 1 January in Slovak Republic
The day of creation of Slovak republic. A national holiday since 1993. Officially calle ...
,
Julienne Bušić used the observation deck to throw leaflets advocating Croatian independence, for which she was arrested, sentenced to one month in prison, deported, and banned from entering the country for three years.
Ferimport later experienced a dramatic downturn in the 1990s after it was
privatized
Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...
in the years following Croatia's independence and the fall of communism, and the building visibly deteriorated in this period.
In 2001, three years after Ferimport had entered administration, it was sold for 6 million
euros
The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
to Peter Doimi de Frankopan, a British real estate investor who claimed lineage to the
House of Frankopan, a Croatian aristocratic family thought to be extinct in the 17th century.
Frankopan had plans for a large scale reconstruction of the building, but the initial concept (which entailed a complete redesign of the façade and the addition of panoramic elevators, spiral staircases and a few extra floors), was rejected by the city's institute for the protection of cultural heritage.
The project was then delayed for four years until a revised renovation plan was finally approved by city authorities in December 2005.
Following the approval, renovation was finally launched in 2006 and was finished in early 2008.
The project was designed by the Aukett Fitzroy Robinson interior design practice in collaboration with the Zagreb-based architecture studio Proarh, and the actual work was done by the
Strabag construction company.
The most significant change in the exterior was the replacement of the originally clear windows with dark gray glass.
The building currently has 5,600 m
2 of office space, and the observation deck on the top floor was closed to the public in 2007.
It was reopened in 2013 as "Zagreb Eye".
References
External links
History of the buildingat the City of Zagreb official website
{{Zagreb
Buildings and structures in Zagreb
Donji grad, Zagreb
Office buildings completed in 1958
Modernist architecture in Croatia
Skyscraper office buildings in Croatia
Yugoslav Croatian architecture