#ivan straus

Continuing from the previous post, the inverted pyramid of the Electroprivreda is connected to a cubic annex building, which seems to have been preserved in the original gold glazing and mustard cladding panels that adorned both in the prewar era. Quite an “electrifying” combination—don’t think I’ve ever encountered on another façade anywhere. Ivan Štraus, c.1978. Photos July 2019 Bauzeitgeist

  “Nakon dvije i pol decenije veoma intenzivne izgradnje, Sarajevo je dobilo novu urbanu dimenziju i arhitektonsku panoramu u kojem su primjetna tri graditeljska sloja - sloj iz preko 400 godina turske vlasti u Bosni, potom sloj četrdeset godina austrougarskog graditeljskog prisustva, te moderni izraz u arhitekturi koji je počeo prvim objektima moderne nakon Prvog svjetskog rata. Nesporni vrh tog trećeg graditeljskog sloja dostignut je izvedbom anslambla Kulturno-sportskog centra Skenderija izvedenog 1969, godine po idejnoj koncepciji Živorada Jankovića i Halida Muhasilovića. Odluka gradskih vlasti da u jednoj složenoj urbanoj konfiguraciji grada objedini široku lepezu raznih funkcija - kulturnih, sportskih, trgovačkih, ugostiteljskih, uslužnih i drugih - može se smatrati mudrm i dalekovidnom. Jedinstveni arhitektonsko-prostorni koncept - po prvi put ostvaren u bivšoj Jugoslaviji - uspješno je riješio sve složene dispozicione zahtjeve investitora u znalačkom i oblikovnom maniru koji je u potpunosti odgovarao arhitektonskom trendu tih godina - gradska agora za aktivnosti ili zabavu na otvorenom, upotreba betona iz oplate kao finalna površinska obrada fasada, složeni konstruktivni sistem za velike raspone i drugo. Izuzetan doprinos postignut je i u novoj gradskoj dimenziji koju je Sarajevo dobilo izvedbom ovog Centra u čijim prostorima je omogućeno održavanje mnogih značajnih društvenih, političkih, privrednih, sportskih, muzičkih, umjetničkih i drugih manifestacija. Izgradnja Skenderije bila je jedan od najkrupnijih arhitektonskih događaja tih godina u suvremenoj jugoslavenskoj arhitekturi, a njen sadržajni koncept - potvrđen kroz brojne oblike života - postao prototip za mnoge slične programe velikih gradova Jugoslavije. Suvremeno koncipirana i opremljena agora, složena i dobro organizirana dispozicija svih sadržaja i izvanredno uspjelo oblikovanje u sirovom betonu donijeli su autorima Centra Saveznu nagradu "Borbe” za najuspjelije arhitektonsko ostvarenje u Jugoslaviji - prvu u bosanskohercegovačkoj vitrini graditeljskih trofeja - kao i Šestoaprilsku nagradu grada Sarajeva 1970. godine. ‘Posebni su kvaliteti izraženi u inventivnoj artikulaciji prostornih jedinica i njihovoj adaptabilnosti, kao i asketskom izboru materijala koji upravo svojom lapidarnošću konstituiše osnovne vrijednosti ostvarenog arhitektonskog izraza’ - rečeno je između ostalog uz odluku Saveznog žirija Borbine nagrade. Za centar Skenderija se može ustvrditi da je u prostornu strukturu grada i njegovu panoramu unio novo, suvremeno mjerilo i da je težište grada pomjerilo iz njegove izrazite longitudinalnosti. Sarajevo, grad čije su graditeljske identifikacije sve donedavno bili ili Begova džamija ili stara Gradska vijećnica, dobio je Skenderijom još jedan oblikovno-prostorni simbol sa prepoznatljivom siluetom i kompozicijom cijelog ansambla. Skenderija je vremenom postala i simbol razvoja društvenog sistema, visoke urbane kulture i zavidne arhitektonske razine sarajevskog kruga graditelja.“ - IVAN ŠTRAUS, 99 ARHITEKATA SARAJEVSKOG KRUGA 1930 – 1990 Photo credits to Anida Krečo

It is debatable which of Ivan Štraus’s Sarajevo buildings, stretched along the main thoroughfare in the center of the city, is the most prominent, but perhaps the most well-known within the architecture academy is not the Holiday Inn or UNITIC towers, but the Electroprivreda (Electricity Management) Building, about 3 tram stops east on Zmaja od Bosne from the former two. Built earlier than either, in 1978, the inverted pyramid was, and is, a further testament to Štraus’s talents in the practice of an exuberant, urbane late modernism which became prominent symbols of cosmopolitan Bosnia in the era that brought the Olympics to town. As with the other major buildings in the city, Electroprivreda was shelled and burned in the spring 1992 assaults that began the long Siege of Sarajevo, and was reduced to a skeletal hulk. In 1993, the architectural theorist Lebbeus Woods was invited to the city by a local festival producer, and, as explained on the late Woods’s website, met with Ivan Štraus and visited several of his major works which were already ruins. Woods reacted to his experience by proposing an architectural concept he called freespaces: correctly predicting that 90% of the city would be rebuilt just as it had been before, Woods suggested that 10% should reflect the physical scars of the war by developing new, unprogrammed structures and spaces which citizens could freely occupy and use. Woods was attempting to provide an architectural intervention that would neither erase the war through the removal of all destruction but also not leave the city scarred by haunting ruins. Woods articulated his vision through a drawing of a freespace growing off one end of Electroprivreda: images 4 and 5 show Wood’s original drawing and a rendering by Carlos Fueyo from 2004. Wood’s concepts never came to pass; the building was reconstructed and now is in much its same form but is now covered with aqua-mirrored glazing, where old photos of the original HQ show gold glass. Images posted by the late Lebbeus Woods to his blog in January 2008; Photos July 2019 Bauzeitgeist.

While the hotel has been minimally revamped and repaired, it appears to a remarkable degree just as it did in 1984, right down to the vintage furniture and the odd item here and there that still says “Holiday Inn” —somewhat unwelcome for hotel guests but quite fortuitous for fans of architectural history. Ivan Štraus, architect, 1982-84. Photos July 2019 Bauzeitgeist.

I decided to visit Sarajevo I knew I had to stay at the Holiday Inn mainly to live out my memories of Christiane Amanpour reporting live during the war when I was a kid (than any choice of comfort; while it was once state of the art deluxe accommodation, nowadays it isn’t exactly the Ritz). Ivan Štraus’s landmark was a significant development for the city when it opened a few months before the 1984 Olympics, and a decade later it became the primary base for international journalists—as well as more than a few political and military leaders of the warring sides—during the long siege of Sarajevo from 1992-95. There’s actually an amazing short documentary recently produced by Al Jazeera as an episode of their series “War Hotels” that I highly recommend. Today it is called the Hotel Holiday and has been completely restored to functionality—and surprisingly has maintained Štraus’s original design almost entirely; more it seems out of economy than any commitment to architectural preservation. But still the owners carefully refreshed the exterior paneling to maintain the building’s signature, tricolored LEGO-like façades, and repaired the shell-scarred render of the delightful geometric details on the elevations—I love those origami corners which accentuate the inverted pyramid of the upper floors—and at the entryway, especially the large arch over the main lobby entry and the cantilevered cover at the conference entrance. The late great Ivan Štraus, architect, 1982-83. Photos July 2019 Bauzeitgeist.

These are the buildings that I most wanted to see when visiting Sarajevo: the twin towers of the UNIS (today UNITIC) complex, another design by Ivan Štraus, and located just next to the Holiday Inn in Marijin dvor, were a symbol of the economic golden era of Yugoslavia’s commercial cooperatives. The twins were locally nicknamed “Momo and Uzeir” after two comedy show characters on a popular radio comedy show, it was never specified which tower was which character, one a Bosniak and one Serbian, an innocent ambiguity in light of what was to come in the years ahead. Aside from appreciating its angular late modern, mirrored-glass design, seeing these skyscrapers, burning from shelling on cable news in the early 1990s when I was a kid made a lasting impression on me. Like the rest of Sarajevo’s landmark buildings, the UNITIC has been completely restored, although the towers’ best elements, the brutalist sculptural capitals floating over the glass towers, are mostly obscured by brand name hoardings today but are still great. Shame that much of Štraus’s work was left out of MoMA’s Toward A Concrete Utopia exhibit.  Ivan Štraus, architect, 1982-87.

Just a few more of Ivan Štraus’s excellent UNIS/UNITIC twin towers complex, mainly because I just couldn’t stop taking photos of it. Although definitely wish there wasn’t so much tenant branding on the superb hovering-hulk brutalist capitals; love the cubist underskirt of the curtain wall, seemingly carved away where the tower meets the base; having just visited Paul Rudolph’s twin tower City Center complex in Fort Worth, Texas in May, it seems Štraus may have been a fan of Paul Rudolph as well. Photos July 2019 Bauzeitgeist.

Just as with Štraus’s inarguable incorporation of John Portman’s style at the Holiday Inn, the clear precedent for the UNIS/UNITIC twin towers is One Astor Plaza in New York City (second photo), designed by Der Scutt during his time at Ely Jacques Kahn’s office, 1968-72. The three tiers are identical architectonic combinations of sculptural, brutalist capitals hovering over curtain wall tower shafts, although the blue mirrored glass here is much more luminous, and Štraus’s twin towers meet the ground with lots of careful, smaller-scaled details, the glass midsection ending in cubist, cutaway geometry, joining several street-level lobbies and commercial spaces. A narrow courtyard passageway weaves between the two towers, whereas Astor Place’s tower column disappears into the incomprehensible jumble of 7th Avenue and Broadway’s street level insanity. As Astor Place is next door to Portman’s Marriott Marquis in Times Square, we can guess that Štraus passed through the area around 1980. New York Photo October 2014 and Sarajevo Photos July 2019 Bauzeitgeist.