Résidence Espéria — Anvers

Apartment building in a matter-of-fact Art Deco style ("zakelijke art deco"), erected in 1935-1936 on the corner of Camille Huysmanslaan and Beschavingstraat after a design by the Brussels engineer-architect Jacques Maccario; the client, F. Mathieu and then the public limited company "Espéria", intended it for well-off tenants. It was the second building erected in the zone reserved for high-rise buildings in the Exhibition district (Tentoonstellingswijk). Built of reinforced concrete faced with yellow brick and Euville stone on a bluestone base, it has eight storeys, a set-back mansard floor with one staff room per apartment, and a basement with a garage, for twenty-four apartments and a small caretaker's flat. Its symmetrical façade is marked by the rounded corner, two colossal projections also with rounded corners, and bluestone string courses at each floor. The bluestone entrance portico, with fluted walls between half-columns, and the marble vestibule with a bas-relief of the three-master "ESPERIA" survive, while the steel windows have been replaced in PVC following the original glazing pattern. It is recorded in the Flemish architectural heritage inventory.

Translated from the French original.