Immeuble à appartements Drezner — Anvers

Art Deco apartment building erected for Messrs S., J. and A. Drezner to a 1931 design by the architects Karel Van Riel and Maurice Janssens; according to the inventory, it was the first tall building on the Nerviërsstraat, until then lined with mansions and town houses, and it is the two partners' earliest known work of this kind in Antwerp. With a reinforced-concrete frame, it has a basement and seven storeys under a flat roof, each flat occupying a whole floor. The asymmetrical composition is underlined by the layered combination of white stone and yellow Belvédère brick with "Dudok" joints (recessed bed joints and flush head joints); continuous sills, transoms and lintels reinforce the streamlined effect of the wide window registers, and the emphasis lies on the three-sided bay window rising over the upper floors. Fluted friezes decorate the base of the bay window and the top of the façade, and small chevrons punctuate the drip mouldings, a motif repeated in the geometric Art Deco ironwork of the cellar grilles, the entrance transom and a balustrade; the original steel window frames and the wrought-iron door have been renewed. The entrance hall is clad in marble, and the five-person electric lift, installed by the Antwerp firm Daelemans, keeps its original drum in the machine room. The building is recorded in the Flemish architectural heritage inventory.

Translated from the French original.