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Neboticnik

Ljubljana, Slovenia
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The Slovenian Pension Fund commissioned Vladimir Subic to sketch a plan for a tall edifice to be built on the most prestigious site in Ljubljana, the main road in the city centre. He prepared a number of variations for the building. Based on Plecnik's suggestion for a corner at this site, the municipal authorities permitted a heigh for the building with six stories. Up until that point only buildings of five stories had been permitted. Subic invited students of the architecture school to submit plans for finishing the tower, so Bojan Stupica submitted a drawing of a cafe on the top floor, Ivan Medved designed a functionalist steel and glass cube, while Marjan Music designed a classical tempietto in the manner of Plecnik.

Reaching a height of 70 meters, Neboticnik was the ninth tallest building in Europe in 1931 and the first multi-story building of its kind in the Balkans. The Skyscraper was built at the same time as the Rockefeller Center in new York and carried for a certain time the same symbolic meaning. It adhered to the concept of the vertical city: the shops situated on the first and second floors, the upper floors occupied by offices and apartments and the top holds a cafe and terrace with a panoramic view. The structure of the building was first in the line of buildings in Ljubljana that exceeded allowed height of buildings and establishes a new dominant in the city. During construction it symbolized the evolving city and its economic prosperity. A monumental entrance hall is furnished with black marble from Podpec and leads to spiral staircase. Technical novelties include rapid elevators, air conditioning and central heating fueled by oil. Statue on the outside facade is the work of sculptor Lojze Dolinar and Boris Kalin, the interior sculptures designed France Gorse.

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bostjan, September 24th, 2017
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