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Cheers to our "talented" literature prize awardee. Your pain his gain !!!
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EGY.COM - ZAMALEK
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Cairo Times, 28 October 1999 |
No. 157 & 159 Baehler Mansions on Fouad Al-Awal Avenue
Baehler Building on Soliman Pasha Square, downtown Cairo
One of Baehler last creations was the downtown Baehler Buildings which overlook ex-Soliman Pasha (now Talaat Harb) Square. Built between 1927-29 these deluxe tenements replaced the Savoy Hotel and its attachments which included the Savoy Chambers. For a long time the Savoy had been one of colonial Cairo's most important business and residential addresses. It was there that British-owned companies established their representative offices and it was at the smart Savoy Hotel that the British army set up its GHQ during WW1.
The Savoy complex was barely three decades old in 1924 when it was pulled down. Its new owner, Charles Baehler cleared the way for his own personal understanding of what an interdisciplinary urban construction should be. In fact, nothing of that scale had been seen in downtown Cairo, yet. And if the city center lost one of its leading hotels, the father of Egypt's hospitality industry superseded the Savoy with the neo-classic Metropolitan (later renamed Cosmopolitan) hotel just around the corner, off Kasr el Nil Street.
True to a lifetime dedicated to hotels the Cosmopolitan was Baehler's last contribution to Cairo's urbana.
Baehler's downtown plaza consisted of six semidetached buildings (blocs A through F) each with its own entrance. In total, the buildings contained 130 deluxe apartments some conceived as offices, the rest residential. The ground floors were partitioned into 72 shops each with a separate basement. The general style was fin de siecle Parisian. Although the name Vogt was mentioned, it is not yet clear as to who exactly was the project's main architect. On the other hand, the two north-western blocs (aka as the Chaldijian Bldgs) evidence a plaque with the name of Leon Nafilyan "architecte Paris 1934."
The Baehler Arcade (or passage as it soon came to be called) could have been a miniature version of Rue de Rivoli in Paris. Crawling with premium boutiques, the arcade sheltered the best haberdasheries, the finest lingerie, the trendiest men's wear and the artiest painting galleries in town. As for the showrooms fronting Soliman Pasha or Kasr El Nil Streets, these were game to the highest bidder.
No doubt, Baehler knew something or two about proportions, harmony and streetscape. Which is perhaps why his commercial lease contracts spelt out in the clearest of terms the "do's and don't" regarding storefront merchandising, promotional lighting and window displays. There was no thought yet that someone would dare append a medical signpost to his balcony grill or pockmark his façade with leaking ir-conditioners. Surely our man would have had multiple coronaries should he have known the chaos that would succeed his rigid cahier des charges. One consolation is to Baehler's ultimate credit, his downtown building features on the cover of Paris Along the Nile, a recently published book evoking Cairo's belle époque architecture.
Preceding Baehler Buildings and Baehler Passage in downtown Cairo are two of the handsomest structures on Zamalek's 26th of July Street.
By now everyone on Zamalek Island has either had a pizza at Maison Thomas, or purchased a cold Stella from the nearby al-Ahram Beverages (Beer) depot. Welcome to Baehler Mansions built early this century on land carved out from the former khedivial palace gardens.
Realizing Cairo was expanding westwards towards the Nile, Charles Baehler, owner of the Gezira Palace Hotel (today Marriott Hotel) took up his option to buy more of the island's agricultural land enabling him to form an urban development company. The new district of Zamalek was born.
Whether he was too busy or much too expensive renown court architect Antonio Lasciac was not on Baehler's shortlist of building designers. Yet it was to Lasiac's son in law Alex Skynder of Skynder & Skynder that the Swiss hotelier turned to when he decided to build in Zamalek two grand buildings separated by a circular landing or outer court. Here too we find the splendiferous elevator cages, the lofty vaults, the ornate brickwork and the decorative details. Note also the endless foyers conceived in the days when capitalists weren't preoccupied with returns per square meter.
Here again Baehler would be aghast at the vulgar additions forced upon Zamalek's two grand ladies with no consideration whatsoever to the existing totality. Once again time was unkind to Cairo's belle époque architecture but Monsieur Baehler may find some comfort in learning that Cairo's most photographed interior is domiciled right there at Baehler Mansions, home to Egypt's leading decorator Ihab Shafik. Moreover, Baehler, a leader in Egypt's food & beverage hospitality industry, would be delighted to know that world celebrated cookbook author Claudia Roden (daughter of Cesar E Douek and Nelly Sasoon) was raised at No 159 Avenue Fouad.
Zamalek's Gezira House a.k.a. Emaret al-Yemeni thus re-named after a latter-day owner is also a Baehler creation. Designed in 1908-9 by Ernest Jaspar of Heliopolis fame, this building can claim to be the island's first immeuble de rapport--apartment house.
If for half a century Gezira House overlooked an attachment to the Gezira Palace Hotel (later Casino Zamalek - Lotfallah Salamlik), today it stands on Michel Lotfallah Street opposite All Saint's Cathedral in and advanced stage of rigor mortis. True, there are the usual evidences here and there of individual and uncoordinated initiatives to bring it back to life yet not enough to give comfort to Baehler or his like-minded kith.
It would not hurt if Gezira House's present owner, a well-known Cairo millionaire-plutocrat, took a leaf out of the Swiss man's book so that someone, somewhere, one hundred years from now may remember him warmly as one does the great Charles Baehler.
FACTOIDS: CHARLES ALBERT BAEHLER 1868-1937
Born in Thoune, Switzerland 10 June 1868
21 October 1889 Charles Baehler arrives in Cairo.
In 1904 acquires controlling interest in the Egyptian Hotels Limited founded in 1897.
In 1906 forms Upper Egypt Hotels Ltd. with five hotels in Luxor and Aswan including Winter Palace (which Baehler built) and Cataract. One of the company's general managers in the 1930s was Anton Badrutt. Later he would run the Kulm Hotel of St. Moritz, Switzerland.
In 1907 creates Electric Light and Power Supply Company which feeds 2,500 horsepower worth of electricity to Shepheards Hotel and outlying district.
In 1908 purchases additional land on Gezira (ex-Boulac) Island and creates new urban district of Zamalek.
In 1910 acquires controlling shares in Semiramis Hotel which he immediately enlarges.
In 1925 Egypt Hotels agrees to manage properties of Grand Hotels Company (ex-Nungovitch Group) for 25 years. With the Continental, Mena House, Helwan and San Stefano joining the fold, Baehler in control of most of Egypt's leading hotels with aggregate of 4,000 beds.
Between 1927-29 constructs Baehler Mansions in Zamalek (now owned, one each, by the Chishini family and former minister Aded Abdel-Baki) and the Baehler Buildings in downtown Cairo (now the property of Insurance companies).
In 1928-9 opens Metropolitan (later Cosmopolitan) Hotel off Cairo's Kasr el Nil Street; launches small hotel in Fayoum.
In 1929 constructs King David Hotel in Jerusalem (decorated by A. Hufschmied of Geneva).
1933 and after, Baehler-Reinhart Challenge Cup fought out on tennis courts between Cairo and Alexandrian Swiss residents.
An avid art collector and sportsman, Baehler also prominent racehorse owner. With wife Madeleine Damster, Baehler resides at Red Court Villa on Hassan Sabry (ex-Gabalaya) street. Moves to Villa Lotus No. 20 Dar El Chefa Street Garden City. (Villa Lotus illegally pulled down in 1996 by present owner which led to firing of Cairo's deputy governor).
In Switzerland resides at Chateau Neu-Habsburg (medieval Habsburg fort) at Meggen. In the 1970s Raoul and Simone Baehler sell chateau to Switzerland's press baron, the Ringier family.
Described as "a robust man" by his peers Baehler nevertheless dies in Switzerland on 12 September 1937 from post-operative complications. Sons Rene and Gaston remain in Egypt. Rene, who cut a dashing figure with spouse Aurore Souwaya on Cairo's dance floors, takes over Metropolitan Hotel. Rene Baehler also remembered for having founded the Keigel Klub Kairo (KKK).
Survived today by Baehler descendants Oscar, Raoul, Marise, Robert, Bernard...
(Note: Metropolitan Hotel later renamed Cosmopolitan)
According to Max Karkegi, now living in France, one of the twin Baehler Buildings on Zamalek's 26th of July Street was purchased by his father (the late Nicolas Karkegi) from Rene Baehler in 1950 and re-sold in 1955.
For more information on Charles Baehler type "Baehler" in this site's search engine.
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