Restoration of the Listed Historical Building of the Nicoloudis Mansion & Arcade on Panepistimiou 41 Street (Eleytheriou Venizelou), after the February 12, 2012 Arseny. 2012-2013
The February 12, 2012 demonstration lead to organized arseny of several buildings in the centre of Athens, especially those owned by banks. In the case of Alpha bank, two of its neighbouring central interconnected buildings were severely damaged, both the Panepistimiou 41 ‘Nicoloudis Mansion’ and the Ex. Popular (‘Laiki’) Bank at the corner of Panepistimiou (45) & Pesmazoglou streets.
An important pre-World-War II, listed Historical building by architect A.Nicoloudis, built in 1935 with post-war additions of the topmost residential storeys, or at least the remaining section after the demolition of the wing closer to Stadiou street30 years before the present restoration, containing at ground floor the historical Nicoloudis Arcade, the first commercial arcade in the City of Athens, designed by the Architect-owner before the relevant legislation for commercial arcades was established by the Greek state. The building had been recently meticulously restored in a major intervention in 1998-2000, completed by our firm, 12 years ago (refer to previous project), and since forming part of the central complex of Buildings owned by Alpha Bank.
The 2012 fire, weakened the C.I.P. concrete structural system of the building. Therefore structural enhancement after the fire of all columns beams or slabs in the affected area was mandatory. In the case of columns & beams next to the arcade, enhancement with fire-resistant iron sheets& special provisions so as to distort marble veneer in arcade to only a minimal degree (2 cm laterally on each column and 5 cm maximum additional protruding into the Arcade) based on architect’s specs which were approved by the relevant council at the ministry of Culture.
After the complex process for the mandatory permits from all the authorities (ministry of culture etc) the actual restoration commenced including additional specification for further passive protection of the building and its residents against fire. This involved restoration of the Façade, the Arcade-Shops, internal courts, the elaborately designed Nicoloudis apartments in 4th and 5th floors and of course office space of the 1st -3rd storeys that was completely ruined. Any sections of the buildings that were not structurally affected were identified and restored first so that the bank’s personnel could return at the earliest convenience. In other sections of the building the works, were executed with restrictions, zone by zone, either for the convenience of the bank’s personnel, or for the convenience of the public passing from the busy arcade, and of course with a variety of mandatory safety measures constantly in place.