Tayyare Apartments

Crowne Plaza Istanbul Old City
Tayyare Apartments as Crowne Plaza Hotel Istanbul Old City today
Location within Istanbul
Hotel chain	Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts
General information
Location	Istanbul, Turkey
Address	Ordu Cad. 226 34470 Laleli, Istanbul
Coordinates	41°00′35″N 28°57′28″E / 41.00972°N 28.95778°E / 41.00972; 28.95778Coordinates: 41°00′35″N 28°57′28″E / 41.00972°N 28.95778°E / 41.00972; 28.95778
Owner	Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK)
Height	22.91 m (75.2 ft)
Technical details
Floor area	25,000 m2 (270,000 sq ft)
Other information
Number of rooms	265
Number of restaurants	2
Website
www.cpoldcity.com/index_en.html

The Tayyare Apartments, (initially Ottoman Turkish: Harikzedegân Apartmanları‎ or later Turkish: Tayyare Apartmanları), are a complex of four buildings completed in 1922 and located in the old city of Istanbul, Turkey. The apartments were originally built as public housing for the victims of a great fire, converted later into hotel premises. Formerly Ramada Hotel and then Merit Antique Hotel, the complex is currently a five star hotel of the Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts chain named Crowne Plaza Istanbul Old City.

In 1918, a great fire destroyed numerous buildings in wide areas at the old city of Istanbul, mainly in neighborboods of Cibali, Altımermer and Fatih. Plans were made to construct residential buildings at least for a part of low-income fire victims, who had lost their houses. Renowned Turkish architect Kemaleddin Bey (1870-1927) was commissioned with the task to develop apartments in Laleli quarter.

Ottoman Ministry of Foundations donated the empty ground of Koska Madrasa, which belonged to Laleli Mosque's Complex, and was partly destroyed by the 1894 Istanbul earthquake and then burnt down in 1911. The construction, financed by voluntarily donations from residents of Istanbul, began in 1919 and was completed in 1922. Styled in Turkish neoclassical architecture, the low-rise structure consists of a ground floor, a mezzanine and two floors topped with a roof floor reaching a total height of 22.91 m (75.2 ft). The complex consists of four symmetrical, equal-sized quadratic buildings separated by atriums, all forming a block. Tayyare Apartments were the first modern buildings constructed in reinforced concrete, and the first public housing project within the walled old city of Istanbul. There were a total of 124 apartments with three or five rooms and covered terrace, 25 shops and in addition laundrette for common use, as well as coal bunkers for each apartment. The building complex was called initially "Harikzedegân Apartmanları" meaning "Apartments for Fire Victims". The completion of the complex coincided with the ending of the Ottoman Empire, and the designated lodgers could not move in. After the apartments were transferred to the Turkish Aeronautical Association (formerly Turkish: Türk Tayyare Cemiyeti, now Turkish: Türk Hava Kurumu, THK) in the newly founded Republic, they were renamed "Tayyare Apartmanları" meaning "Aircraft Apartments". The apartments were used for residential purposes only until 1985.