The ZUPU Lwów tenement building
The Lwowian ZUPU (Insurance Company for Office Workers) pension fund invested in tenement buildings. The apartment house at Inwalidów Sq., originally comprising of 50 flats, is a beautiful example thereof. Built in the style of the Cracovian School, it has distinct Expressionist features, e.g. triangular balconies in the cut corner. It also has geometrical clinker brick decorations, both in the ground floor and under the eaves. The latter ones are reminiscent of the Carpathian Highlanders’ folk art motifs which were keenly applied by the Polish Art Dèco. The entire composition is similar, in its expression, to the famed Chilehaus in Hamburg, by Fritz Höger, built in the same year. However, it is an entirely original work of a Cracovian architect.