Local services
At the end of September, dehir.hu reported that Construction and Building Maintenance Ltd., headquartered in Budapest, won the conditional public procurement procedure announced by the University of Debrecen to renovate the facade of the main building on University Square. The winning company would undertake the work for a gross amount of HUF 678 million. Since then, the University has managed to secure the funds for the development, and the contract has been signed.
The main building of the University of Debrecen will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2032. The imposing building, designed by Flóris Kolb, has been under monument protection since 1987, and the facade renovation will restore it to its original appearance, worthy of the university’s main building.
The main front of the building, which is the university’s symbol, is 108 metres high, 88 metres deep and covers an area of 6,200 square metres.
The building’s plaster and stone facades will be cleaned during the technical and aesthetic renovation. Missing elements and damaged and incomplete cornices will be remanufactured and replaced. Rainwater will be drained from the building through horizontal and vertical gutters and downpipes in the walls. During the upgrade, the drainage system will be flushed and defects repaired. In addition to the façade of the main building, the surrounding area will also be renewed, with the creation of the washed pebble pavements that were initially planned and still exist in many places and the repair and replacement of the defects and deficiencies of the andesite paving stones in the decorative pavement in front of the southern facade.
Work is scheduled to start on the eastern facade of the building, facing the University Church, in March 2025. This will be followed by the most visible area, the southern facade, and then the western and northern facades, with their internal courtyards and air shafts.
The modernisation work is expected to take 28 months. According to the University, the contractor has taken over the worksite, and the excavations, sampling, and laboratory tests required for the work have started.
These renovation works do not affect the windows and doors, which will be replaced as part of the internal energy modernisation.
Higher education in Debrecen began in 1914 within the walls of the Reformed College, founded in 1538. There was also talk of building a university town around the Reformed College. Debrecen eventually donated a large area of land in the Great Forest to the university. First, the main building of the present Clinical Centre rose from the ground, followed by the central building.
The plans for the old German classicist-style building were drawn up in the 1910s by Flóris Korb, who originally dreamed of towers on the top of the two protruding, bastion-like parts of the building, which would have been meteorological and astronomical observation stations. The architect also designed the dome of the courtyard to be higher. However, the plans were not approved by the rectors of the time, so they were revised. The construction of the imposing main building began in the 1920s. When handed over, it was planned that the main building would be expanded if there was demand and budget. The university’s main building was to be a U-shaped complex, which would surround the park and fountain on two sides. However, this never came to fruition. Instead, in the first half of the 1960s, the chemistry building was added to the university campus.
Source and photo credit:dehir.hu
