{{Infobox monument | name = Telephones Company Building | native_name = Palatul Telefoanelor din București | image = 37 Calea Victoriei, Bucharest (01).jpg | image_size = | caption = | location = Calea Victoriei 37, Bucharest, Romania | mapframe = | designer = Louis S. Weeks<br />Edmond van Saanen Algi<br />Walter Froy{{sfn|Celac|Carabela|Marcu-Lapadat|2017|p=55}} | type = | material = | length = | width = | height = 52.5 m | weight = | visitors_num = | visitors_year = | begin = 1929{{sfn|Celac|Carabela|Marcu-Lapadat|2017|p=55}} | complete = 1934{{sfn|Celac|Carabela|Marcu-Lapadat|2017|p=55}} | dedicated = | open = | restore = | dismantled = | dedicated_to = | map_name = | map_text = | map_width = | map_relief = | coordinates = | website = | extra_label = Style | extra = Art Deco }} '''Telephones Company Building''' ({{langx|ro|Palatul Telefoanelor}}) is an Art Deco office building located on Calea Victoriei in Bucharest, Romania. It is now owned by Telekom România.

==Bucharest== thumb|left|200px|Telephone Palace in 1935 Palatul Telefoanelor in Bucharest is an Art Deco style building and until 1956, was the tallest building in Bucharest at {{convert|52.5|m|abbr=off}}.<ref>Construcții; "List of Names and Places Explained: The Telephone Palace" in ''Bucharest Between the Wars'' for date it ceased to be tallest.</ref>

The worldwide Great Depression that began with the Wall Street crash of 1929 also affected Romania, strongly impacting the Romanian economy. The Romanian government decided to take a loan from the American trust, J.P. Morgan & Co., <!-- This needs more precision: there were at least five Rockefeller/Morgan banks at that time, who made the loan? --> which obtained from this transaction the granting of a 20-year monopoly on Romanian telephony to the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT),<ref>"List of Names and Places Explained".</ref> which then formed the Societatea Anonimă Română de Telefoane (SART, "Romanian Telephone Company, Ltd.").<ref>Romtelecom.</ref> The aim was to modernize Romanian telephony and to construct the Telephone Palace.<ref>"List of Names and Places Explained".</ref>

Designed on behalf of SART by the Romanian architect of Dutch origin Edmond Van Saanen Algi and built over the course of about 20 months in 1931&ndash;1933, it was the first major modernist building on Bucharest's Calea Victoriei,<ref>Romtelecom, Construcții. "List of Names and Places Explained" says the architects were the Americans Louis Weeks and Walter Froy.</ref> the street of which Tudor Octavian wrote, "this is how the whole of Bucharest would look if we had been allowed..., if its builders had been clever enough..."<ref>''Bucureștiul Interbelic'', p. 5 (pages unnumbered).</ref> It was constructed on the former site of the Oteteleșanu Mansion, which had been, since the turn of the century, home to a terrace bar (Terasa Oteteleșanu), a coffee house and a beer saloon, competing with Casa Capșa for the custom of Bucharest's elite from its location next to the old Romanian National Theatre.<ref>"List of Names and Places Explained", section cited and "The Oteteleșanu Mansion"; Anghel, "Cum se distrau..."</ref>

The steel skeleton was produced by the Reșița steelworks. The building was inaugurated in 1934 in the presence of King Carol II.<ref>"List of Names and Places Explained".</ref> The building was extended (both vertically and horizontally) in 1940 and 1946, and survived earthquakes in 1940, 1977, 1986, and 1990, as well as bombing in 1944 by Allied Forces during World War II.<ref>Romtelecom, Rotary Construcții; Kaufmann 2001 for the earthquake dates.</ref> With the advent of the Communist era, the building passed into the hands of the Romanian government, along with SART itself, which was nationalized as a division of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The 1989 Revolution resulted in the establishment of the independent ROM-POST-TELECOM, reorganized as Romtelecom in July 1991.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.romtelecom.ro/en/company/about_romtelecom/history_and_tradition.html| title=Romtelecom – History and Tradition| access-date=2006-05-22| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051201024633/http://www.romtelecom.ro/en/company/about_romtelecom/history_and_tradition.html| archive-date=2005-12-01}}</ref>

A 1993 study revealed structural problems (the roof was never designed to support microwave antennas, but only a coffee shop); before a major reconstruction project could be started in 1997, engineers had to begin by redrawing building plans, as the originals had been lost. Work included reconstruction to duplicate the original façade, as well as structural reinforcement. The reconstruction design was made by Romanian architecture office Proiect Bucuresti. The whole project, which ultimately employed 700 people, cost roughly €1 million and lasted until 2005.<ref>Nuta 2005.</ref>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== *Adrian Nuta, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928104805/http://www.infonews.ro/article5278.html Dupa zece ani de renovare, Palatul Telefoanelor are o noua faţa] ("After then years of renovation, the Telephone Palace has a new face"), ''Averea'', 13 May 2005, accessed 2 January 2006. * {{cite book |last1=Celac |first1=Mariana |last2=Carabela |first2=Octavian |last3=Marcu-Lapadat |first3=Marius |title=Bucharest Architecture – an annotated guide |publisher=Order of Architects of Romania |year=2017 |isbn=978-973-0-23884-6}} *Kaufmann, Birgit, [http://www.geinsurancesolutions.com/erccorporate/theinstitute/pc/inst_ind_prop_nathaz_romaniaearthquake.htm Earthquake Exposure In Romania], ''Exposure'', issue No. 5, February 2001, accessed 2 January 2006. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20100708003350/http://www.rotaryconstructii.ro/work_studii_caz.htm Consolidarea Palatului Telefoanelor], Rotary Construcții, 2004, accessed 2 January 2006. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050124002941/http://www.romtelecom.ro/en/company/media_reference/advertorials/the_telephone_palace_in_bucharest.html The Telephone Palace in Bucharest], "Advertorial" on the site of Romtelecom, accessed 2 January 2006. * —, ''Bucureștiul Interbelic/Calea Victoriei/Interbellum Bucharest'', NOI Media Print, {{ISBN|973-99493-7-1}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070312035635/http://www.maerlant.be/cesiexhibit/context/list.htm#nota10 List of Names and Places Explained: The Telephone Palace], in ''Bucharest Between the Wars: A Modernity With Fringes'', Romanian Academy Library, accessed 4 January 2006. *Dinu Anghel, [http://www.miculparis.ro/orasul/istorie/cum_se_distrau_romanii_vara_acum_un_veac.html Cum se distrau românii vara, acum un veac] "How Romanians spent summer a century ago", reprinted from ''Bucătăria pentru toți'', accessed 4 January 2006.

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070312113445/http://www.maerlant.be/cesiexhibit/exhibition/html/new_ways/04_victoriei_up_tech.htm Calea Victoriei between Casa Capșa and Palatul Telefoanelor], 1935, photo. * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060908133520/http://sabin.ro/gallery/bucuresti/P7240942_resize Photo of Palatul Telefoanelor after reconstruction]. {{coord|44|26|10.66|N|26|5|51.24|E|display=title}}

{{Palaces and castles in Romania}} {{Tall buildings in Bucharest}} {{Tall buildings in Romania}}

Category:Buildings and structures in Bucharest Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1934 Category:1934 establishments in Romania Category:Historic monuments in Bucharest Category:Art Deco architecture in Romania Category:Calea Victoriei