Immeuble à appartements Schepens — Anvers

Art Deco apartment building erected for Leon Schepens to a 1935 design by the architects Karel Van Riel and Maurice Janssens; planned with seven storeys, reduced by one floor before work began, it contains six flats and was completed in the autumn of 1936. According to the inventory, the two partners made their mark in Antwerp with a series of high-standing apartment buildings in a sober, functional ("zakelijk") Art Deco style. On a reinforced-concrete frame, the façade of a basement and six storeys under a flat roof consists of a ground floor, upper storeys and a set-back attic; red brick, white stone, imitation stone and bluestone support an asymmetrical composition in which the strong horizontal layering of the broad bay contrasts with the rising window bay with chevron-shaped parapets. The small chevron motif accentuating the surround of this bay is cited as a signature of Van Riel and Janssens; the boot scraper, basement grilles and wrought-iron door, by the Pierre Meeuws workshop of Antwerp, survive. The building is recorded in the Flemish architectural heritage inventory.

Translated from the French original.