Karel Skuherský’s house and the houses for his company employees

Karel Skuherský’s furniture company was one of the largest companies of its kind in East Bohemia in the early 1920s. Its production won several awards such as the Gold Medal and Honorary Cross at the international exhibition of art and trade in Brussels in 1906. Due to the company good results, Karel Skuherský decided to invest in the construction of several residential homes for his family and his company employees. 

Probably in 1921, he approached architect Oldřich Liska who had designed residential houses for several local entrepreneurs (e.g. Josef Nevyhoštěný, a furniture factory owner). Later, Liska designed the four-storey building at the corner of Karla IV and Resslova Streets. The building, owned by Skuherský’s daughter Žofie, was built between November 1921 and 20 November 1922 by Václav Nekvasil and Robert Schmidt’s company. The family firm also initiated the construction of three neighbouring residential houses for employees, built between 1922 and 1924. Liska’s authorship of this project is not certain, but it is very likely due to the design of the adjacent building and the overall artistic conception. 

The ground floor of the corner house was divided with business premises. The remaining part of the façade was decorated in the national style and in the style of late Art Deco. The design of the building included a distinct cornice and an extensive morphology of plastic decorations. Decorations in the form of semi-circular shapes and stylized cups can be found mainly between the windows – similar features decorate the District Sickness Fund in Pardubice. More modest segmentation of the façade was later used in the houses no. 601–603 built for the company employees. The architect varied the neoclassical motifs (the stylized pilasters, pediment, and entry portal) with decorative motifs of the national style (the arch curves of the pilasters and geometric figures on the façade). 

The corner house, owned by Žofie Skuherská, included the ground floor with commercial spaces and a cellar. On the four floors (and in the basement), there were 13 two- and three-room standard flats. The so-called small flats were also built in the remaining three three-storey houses for the employees of Skuherský’s furniture company. The objects still serve primarily their residential purposes.