The Budapest Fashion Street – Deák Ferenc Street
The Budapest Fashion Street is the realization of a bold dream to create the first High Street development project in Central Europe to cover an entire street section in the prestigious city center of Budapest. With the development including 9000 square meters of retail space, combined with the renovation of the old, prestigious buildings and the street itself, a special exclusive environment has been created. All this made further expansion and development of the retail commerce in the inner city possible.
Introduction
The turn of the century is often considered as the Golden Age of Budapest, the time when the whole world was more beautiful. In that beautiful world Deák Ferenc Street used to be a distinguished place but as time went by its light has faded and almost fell into oblivion. Immobilia Ltd. realized the untapped potential and decided to reinvent the street and restored its reputation by turning it into Fashion Street.
The birth of the fabulous street
The first memorable moment in the streets history roots from 1789 when Baron János Schilson started to redesign the chaotic Leopold Town (5th district), including the creation of Deák Street. The street was a link between the marketplace and the pontoon bridge, which made it a very important spot from the very beginning: it was the only road to Buda from Pest until 1849 when the Chain Bridge was opened. Thanks to this key position the sites and real estates located here always represented special value. It is amazing to list the houses planned by the greatest architects of the period.
Houses with soul
Modern and Breitner House, Deák Ferenc Street 23.
The unique corner building once registered at Deák Square 3. – is regarded as one of the greatest creations of Sámuel Révész and József Kollár, the masters of Jugendstil.
Despite its busy and popular location it is very easy to ignore how beautiful this building is. The five- storied house also has a wonderful interior in which there are mostly residencies and also studio apartments are found on the fifth floor. Since the turn of the century the high-ceilinged ground floor is home to the emporium, which is regarded as denominator. The house regained its past splendor in 2009 as Immobilia Ltd. had finished the authentic restoration of the gently illuminating facade.
Deák Ferenc Street 21.
This three-storied building is the lowest one in the street but also the one with the most respectful history. It is one of the most comprehensive examples of the works of József Hild who is considered as one of the most important architects in the reform era when the Pest side was remodeled. Between 1846-1860 the house was also noted as the headquarter of the First Hungarian Painting Academy founded by Jakab Marastoni. The partially converted and completely renovated cultural monument is also famous of its Bohemian (spherical) vault and the curved staircase with romantic stairway decorated by cast iron plant.
Deák Ferenc Street 19.
The house was built by the Hungarian Ministry of Interior in order to accommodate the middle leaders of the city police. Under its courtyard a garage was established, which was lifted and replaced by stores later.
Deák Ferenc Street 17.
This six-storied residential and office building has a very exciting architectural history. The house was created by Révész and Kollár in Jugendstil but the facade was rebuilt several times since 1912 which resulted a simply and modern exterior. The house has been a cultural monument since 1976 and it went through significant changes during its renaissance in the 2000?s after its authentic renovation. Fort the reconstruction of the facade of Deák Ferenc Street 17. and Bécsi street 5. Immobilia ltd. needed 16 tons of copper altogether. It is worth that the names of the creators still can be seen on the walls.
Deák Ferenc Street 15. – Deák Palace
Being the first newly renovated house in the street the partly baroque Deák Palace is a special one. The restoration and modernization started just 100 years after the original house had been built in 1903. After the new opening in 2004 the building was renamed as Deák Palace and today it is home to premises with six-meter-high ceiling on its ground floor and exclusive offices on the floor. From 2004 until 2009 the house was also used by the Hungarian representatives of the Commission and the Parliament of the European Union. Today the building houses acknowledged international companies such as Cushman & Wakefield, Fortis Bank or Morgan Stanley and we are proud to have even the Latvian Embassy as an occupant. Hugo Boss, the leading fashion and lifestyle brand also decided to open an exclusive 600 m2 mono brand store here.
Bécsi Street 5.
Deák Ferenc Street 11-13.
One can hardly believe today that this corner building was built on the edge of the Pest side where once the city wall stood. The property was planned by Izidor Sterk, the co-designer of Gellért Bath and later at the beginning of the 1900?s it was owned by the Dán brothers who ran a fur company here. The five-storey construction used to be a house for merchandise and rental: the ground floor was used for business purposes but there were flats to rent upstairs too. Among the five houses built in this style in the 1910?s only this one remained. This fact made the building even more particular and motivated the creators of Fashion Street even more to restore the house as authentic as possible. It took 16 tons of copper altogether to construct the facade of Bécsi Street 5 and Deák Ferenc Street 17. perfectly.
The renaissance
The huge reconstruction works started at the millennium in order to renew the houses of Deák Ferenc Street and to fulfill a dream: the birth of Fashion Street. Thanks to these investments Budapest became one of the capitals of fashion in Central Europe after western cities such as Paris, London or Milan. To join this league Immobilia ltd. revamped and revived all the extraordinary buildings mentioned above, giving back their original image they got famous for back in the reform era. It is the quality which was the keyword referring to the historic renovation during the reconstructions. This was the only way to develop a fashion hub like this. The exertions seem to worth it if we take a look at the list of stores of Fashion Street: Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Furla, Massimo Dutti, Lacoste, United Colors of Benetton, Lloyd, Vapiano, Starbucks. They all decided to open a store in the street and also Nanushka and Süel, two of the most talented Hungarian designers moved their business here.
