Banloc-Goodrich Building

In the late 1930s, the world’s oldest tire manufacturing trust, founded in 1870 by Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich, entered into an important partnership with Elisabeta, Princess of Romania and former Queen of Greece, to establish a tire factory in Romania. This partnership led to the development of the successful Banloc-Goodrich industrial unit, which played a key role in training Romanian specialists in tire production. In 1938, to support the growth of the factory, architect Octav Doicescu designed a complex of buildings for offices, workshops, and workers’ housing.

The building, located at 218 Calea Victoriei, is notable for its functional and well-organized architecture, consisting of three sections: two side wings, with four floors, and one central, more recessed and taller section, with three floors. The design reflects a focus on creating an efficient workspace, improved through a rational spatial organization and clear volumetry, with elements from the classical architectural vocabulary.

After the interwar period, during the communist regime, the building housed the headquarters of a design institute. Today, the building is abandoned, although around 2009 it was taken over by the government and proposed to house the headquarters of the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS).

In a new effort to preserve and repurpose this heritage, the Banloc-Goodrich building has been proposed as the future home of the National Museum of Jewish History and the Holocaust in Romania. The museum aims to promote the history, culture, and traditions of the Jewish community in the context of Romania’s modernization processes. This project is expected to materialize in 2024, when the building will be transferred to the administration of the National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania “Elie Wiesel”.

Source: armyuser.blogspot.ro

Photo & text: Alex Iacob