The heirs of Romanian architect Arghir Culina recently won in court a wing of the hotel Ambasador and its land plot on Magheru boulevard downtown in Romanian capital Bucharest. The building, erected between 1937 and 1939, had been nationalized during the communist period, and is one of the assets which were given back to owners in kind.

It took ten years of law suits for the heirs to get back their wing towards the Ciclop garage, consisting in a 520 sqm land plot and the 13- floored hotel. Lawyers from Zamfirescu Racoți & Partners represented the winning side. On the other side were the representatives of the SC Ambasador SA, the Authority for State Assets AVAS and the Public Finance Ministry.

The other half of the hotel which remained in the possession of the firm Ambasador Turism will again become functional at half of its capacity, after renovation and reclassification at four stars, instead of the previous three stars.

The case had received a positive court decision back in 2003, but it went through further appeals. “The restitution saga and the various baffles we had to face unfortunately caused many of those who appeared as heirs in this case not to survive to see the happy ending,” said Călin-Andrei Zamfirescu, who coordinated the project team.

Arghir Culin was a famous architect in the first half of the 20th century, having designed several buildings in Bucharest in the art deco style, such as the Palace Hotel, presently Cismigiu Hotel, the Union Center, the building at 48 Splaiul Independentei – dormitories for Medicine students, Hotel Capitol (Louvre) on Calea Victoriei, and the Mincu Villa. For himself he designed the 200-roomed Ambasador hotel, which he owned jointly with Constantin S. Mihăescu, the owner of the adjoining Ciclop garage.

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(photo source: Wikipedia)