Banks
The Cluj-Napoca regional headquarters of the Banca Română pentru Dezvoltare (Romanian Bank for Development) was completed in 1997 after 4 years of work. It is the tallest building in Cluj-Napoca, 50 m or 164 feet. Its 12 stories house offices for the bank and for divisions of several other companies, including insurance and oil companies.
Another architecturally interesting building is the unfinished headquarters of the Banca Agricole (Agricultural Bank), held in the custody of the city due to the failure of that bank and its subsequent purchase by the Reiffeisen Bank. Work ceased in 2000; all that was finished was the exterior, built by the Abatech firm. The city government proposed that the building be completed and transformed into the Casa Europei ("House of Europe"), but funds were not obtained to complete work. In 2006, it was announced that the building will completed as a City Business Center, and work resumed. Today the building is functional and bears the nickname "Clădirea biscuite".
Another building in similar straits is the more recently started Palatul Telefoanelor (Telephone Palace; a building of the same name exists in Bucharest), built by Romtelecom (the national, public phone company), who could not afford to finish the building and auctioned it off. It was bought by Banca Transilvania for 3 million euros. The financial institution announced it will be used as a banking café (Romanian: cafenea bancară), the first of its kind in Cluj (however, since the announcement a rival bank, Banc Post, opened such a café).
Other banks that have constructed modern buildings in Cluj-Napoca include Banca Transilvania, Banca Comercială Română, Banc Post, Banca Ţiriac, ABN Amro Bank, and UniCredit.
Read more about this topic: Contemporary Architecture In Cluj-Napoca
Famous quotes containing the word banks:
“I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best—it’s all they’ll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money—provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don’t need it.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)
“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.”
—Will Durant (1885–1981)
“I am an intelligent river which has reflected successively all the banks before which it has flowed by meditating only on the images offered by those changing shores.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)