Building Portoix & Fix

„A new spirit is flowing through the lands“, described young Maks Fabiani, a close collaborator of Otto Wagner, the master studio at the Vienna Academy. He did not remain on the sidelines either and created in Vienna's third district a building that the prominent American historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock declared the earliest work of the Vienna Secession. The appearance of the commercial and office building of the company Portoix & Fix is unexpectedly stark for its time. The façade is made up of a pure surface with a geometric pattern of pyrogranite square tiles. The glazed surface reflecting light visually lightens the massive longitudinal street front. The lower two floors are made of a reinforced concrete skeleton allowing for large glazing of commercial spaces onto the street. The façade of the upper three office floors is formed by a regularly alternating grid of windows bordered by bronze panels, which also serve as weather protection for fabric blinds. Ventilation grilles under the windows are also bronze. The factory of the Portoix & Fix company was originally located at the back of the plot behind the office building. In 1986-87, the building was reconstructed by the German architect Peter Schweger, who did not adhere closely to the original design.