The public procurement notice published a call for tenders for the ELTE Trefort Garden Campus located in the 8th district, 9 Puskin street, for the design and general construction of the building. The development specifically affects the “E” building, its basement, the ground floor and the two floors.

The house dates from 1873 and was got two mroe levels in 1940. According to the announcement, the 2nd floor will now be demolished and replaced with a new level and attic.

During the works, floors will also be built, a hall, lecture halls and a roof garden (Photo: googlemaps.com)

It is the responsibility of the winning bidder to create a worthy main entrance to the historic palace building and a new hall using the air space in the inner courtyards. The size of the currently 2,043 square meters of interior space will increase to nearly 2,204 square meters by covering or expanding the inner courtyard. During the renovation, 108 traditional window frames with internal insulation will be replaced. 

In the basement there will be a lecture hall for 119 people, a hall, an upstairs hall, a porch, an air space in the hall, but there will also be lecture halls and offices. Upstairs there will be additional lecture halls, offices and a snack bar. A 200-square-meter and a 199-square-meter roof terrace and more than 177 square meters of so-called semi-intensive green roofs will be built on the attic. The lecture halls can accommodate a total of 1,730 people. 

During the works, two elevators, each with a load capacity of 1 ton (13 people), will be installed in the building, the mechanical equipment of the house, the cooling and heating system, and even the sewerage network will be renovated. The walls are subsequently waterproofed against soil moisture and in some places the foundations of the building are reinforced by injection. 

The Institute of Chemistry operated in the house until 2008. Its condition has been deteriorating ever since (Photo: elteonline.hu)

The center of the Institute of Physiology of the Royal Hungarian University of Budapest was designed by Antal Szkalnitzky, the master builder was János Wagner. Szkalnitzky was commissioned by the then Ministry of Culture to build several university buildings. In 1873, with the university professor Jenő Jendrássik, he took part in a study trip abroad in order to build the university object on Pushkin Street (then Eszterházy Street). Baron Loránd Eötvös later worked and experimented in this house.

As we learned from elteonline.hu, not only the Institute of Physiology operated here, but for sixty years, from 1948 onwards, the Institute of Medical Chemistry ran by Staub F. Brunoalso operated here, which moved out of the house in 2008. The building was in a very poor condition by then, the Eötvös Loránd University had prepared the renovation plans for 2011, but the restoration was delayed.

The current state building construction investment was announced by BMSK Investment, Technical Development, Sports Management and Public Procurement Ltd. Tenders must be submitted by 2 February 2022.

Cover photo: The Institute of Physiology in today's Pushkin Street in the mid-1870s by György Klösz (Source: FSZEK Budapest Collection)