Post Office Savings Bank, Vienna

The Austrian Postal Savings Bank building (German language: Österreichische Postsparkasse) is a famous modernist building in Vienna, designed and built by the architect Otto Wagner. The building is regarded as an important early work of modern architecture, representing Wagner's first move away from Art Nouveau and Neoclassicism. It was constructed between 1904 and 1906 using reinforced concrete.

It can be argued that the building is a continuation of traditional architecture with all its elements such as decoration, sculpture, an underlying order, primarily vertical composition, far different from the complete break with tradition that the congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne (CIAM) advocated in the 1920s.

The building houses the headquarters of the Österreichische Postsparkasse (P.S.K.) bank, formerly the k.k. Postsparcassen-Amt (Imperial-Royal Postal Savings Office). It is located at Georg-Coch-Platz 2, in the first district Innere Stadt, next to the Ringstraße boulevard.

Up to eight stories high, the building occupies an entire city block. The massively simplified facade of the bank clearly owes something to classicism. Wagner's key idea was to celebrate modern materials by developing new forms. The entire facade is covered with square marble plates. These are attached to the main brick structure with mortar and ornamented with iron bolts with aluminum caps, which themselves form a pattern. The building's harmonious synthesis between form and functionality was highly acclaimed by critics. The metal rivets do not obstruct the facade but resemble decorative elements. The use of marble also makes the maintenance and cleaning of the facade very easy and inexpensive, another important functional element in Wagner's design. The architect kept the design very minimalistic and simple; his aim was to convey the sense of a strong, impenetrable bank in which customers would know their money was safe.

...
Wikipedia