Österreichische Postsparkasse

Otto Wagner planned and erected the Austrian Postal Savings Bank building, which is a well-known landmark in Vienna. The structure is considered an important work of the Vienna Secession, a form of Art Nouveau.

It was built between 1904 and 1906 with totally new reinforced concrete and inaugurated on December 17, 1906. Between 1910 and 1912, an extension was constructed.

The BAWAG P.S.K. bank, previously the Austriaische Postsparkasse (P.S.K.) bank before its merger with BAWAG in 2005, has its headquarters in this building. Georg-Coch-Platz 2 lies in the first district Innere Stadt, near to the Ringstraße boulevard.

The skyscraper, which is up to eight storeys tall, takes nearly an entire city block. The façade is made up of square marble slabs and metal applications resembling money storage. The bottom and higher floors are connected with granite slabs. The rivets that appear to hold the marble veneer to the wall are entirely decorative and serve to articulate the façade. The rivets serve no use because the approximately 10 cm thick plates are held in place by plaster.The choice of marble makes facade maintenance and cleaning relatively simple and affordable, which is a key practical feature in Wagner’s design. Wagner admired aluminum, a material refined for industrial manufacture by Austrian scientist Carl Josef Bayer. He utilized it not just for the rivets, but also for other architectural features on the outside and inside of the structure, such as the portico columns and central heating fans. Wagner’s long-time colleague Othmar Schimkowitz created the 4.3-meter-high sculptures, which are situated on the building’s attica for the first time. Leopold Forstner contributed to the glass windows.

The visitor enters through the main entrance on Georg-Coch-Platz and ascends a flight of steps to the majestic Kassenhalle, where customer services are housed. As a result, the main hall is essentially on the first floor. The hall is constructed in the style of an atrium, with a big glass roof allowing natural light to reach the building’s center at all times. Natural light is employed not just for aesthetic purposes, but also to save money on electric lighting. Even the main hall floor is made of glass tiles, allowing natural light to reach the floor below, where the Post Office boxes and mail processing facilities are located. Wagner limited the décor of the main hall to a minimum, utilizing primarily glass and polished steel. The ornamental impact is generated by the material’s basic yet exquisite application. Steel columns penetrate the frosted glass skylight, their slender form making them as unobtrusive to the falling light as possible. The hall is a remarkable work by Otto Wagner and one of the greatest examples of the Viennese Secession.

The office space in the building is separated along the axis of the exterior windows, allowing for as much natural light as feasible. Because the internal walls are non-load-bearing, they may be rearranged as needed, a characteristic that has become typical in modern office buildings.