Alpha Bank Building (former Laiki Bank)

What I can see

A work of late classicism or, more precisely, of modernized eclecticism, the former Laiki Bank building, designed by Anastasios Metaxas, does not have monumental characteristics, like the adjacent building of the former Ioniki Bank, designed by the same architect. It was constructed as an office building from the beginning, in a similar style and logic to other office buildings of that era in Athens, and consists of a semi-basement, an elevated ground floor and 2 floors.

What I can't see

It replaced an older building of Laiki Bank, a work by Panos Karathanasopoulos. Metaxas had been appointed with many Laiki Bank projects and was a competitor of Karathanasopoulos. This building resembles several later works of Metaxas, i.e. a sophisticated classicism with the use of cement mortar in the decoration. The decoration did not change, but only the method of construction. This was Metaxas’s “modern” response to Karathanasopoulos. In other respects, the building is devoted to neoclassical principles, such as the tripartite arrangement of base- main body- crowning and the processing of the surfaces between the openings. As in the former Ioniki Bank, the centre of the building is also illuminated through a skylight with stained glass.

Info

• Address: Panepistimiou/ El. Venizelou & Pesmazoglou St.

Bibliography