Villa for directors of the Mining and Steel Company

The double villa for the director of the Mining and Steel Company, whose headquarters had been moved from Vienna to Brno after World War I, was built on the corner of Lerchova and Roubalova streets in 1923. The company chose the Clerk Quarter (the present Masaryk Quarter) where mostly German-speaking citizens of Brno lived in the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as the ideal location for a villa for its employees. The building of this Classicist villa designed by Vienna-based architect Karl Lehrmann was managed by Fritz Schmeer and influenced by the requirements of the clients – managers Kruliš-Randa and Rejholec.
The house represents an example of traditional historicizing projects and was built at a time when the earliest manifestations of functionalism appeared in Brno architecture. This corner double villa consists of symmetrically identical houses and is situated on a sloping site in Roubalova Street; the entrance from this street is therefore situated on the first floor. The outward impression produced by the mass of the villa and the dynamic shape of the round corners and concave curve of the corner side is nearly Baroque, which is also enhanced by the historicizing relief details on the facade and the robust crown molding with dentil. The layouts of both parts of the building are nearly identical mirror images and are dominated by an oval salon (today separated into two parts) registered as the Mining and Steel Company's formal room, for the purpose of lowering the luxury tax. The Classicist interior furnishings were designed by Bohumír Čermák, an influential architect from Brno. The house in Roubalova Street still boasts the well-preserved wooden paneling in the entrance hall with balustrade decorated stairs leading to the gallery and rooms on the first floor.
In 1930 the company moved its headquarters from Brno to Prague and gradually sold all of its houses. A part of the house in Lerchova Street was acquired by the Mosilana textile manufacturer, which set up a boarding house for its apprentices there. The house changed hands in 1961 and was managed by the District National Committee, which built apartments in the villa; these are owned by the City of Brno today. The other part of the house in Roubalova Street has been restored by the present owner to its original condition.