The Czechoslovak Arms Company was established in Brno in 1918 with manufacturing facilities in former Austro-Hungarian artillery shops. However, the range of the company's products expanded beyond arms in the interwar period to include machining tools, industrial scales, aircraft engines, bicycles and typewriters. The company developed Czechoslovakia's first car with front wheel drive, the Z4, in the 1930s.
As production grew in the late 1920s, so did the plant in Zábrdovice. In 1928 the new administration building designed by Bohumír Čermák was built with a tower as the monumental entrance to the complex. It also featured the company's most formal areas – sales management offices and a showroom displaying new car models. The sloped front of the building with the main entrance creates an entrance area in front of the gate. The classical facade is decorated with two lesenes topped by a balcony and framing the loggia on the first floor with the balustrade. On the left is the tower's elevated risalit topped by a cube with the neon logo of the company.
PH