Tadeusz/Tadej Obminskyi is an extremely important figure in the history of Lviv architecture of the first third of the 20th century. He was a versatile person – he had a developed sense of mass and space, line and ornament. He was an excellent draftsman. Another side of his talent is precise technical thinking in the categories of specific material and construction. April 16 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of T. Obminsky, a prominent architect of the beginning of the 20th century.
First, T. Obminskyi received a four-grade primary education at the school named after Konarskyi, later studied at the gymnasium named after Franz Joseph and the real school. In 1892, he entered the Imperial Royal Polytechnic School (now Lviv Polytechnic University). Initially, he chose the direction of engineering, but in the second year he switched to the construction department, i.e. the faculty of architecture. During graduation, he received a diploma with the distinction “Specially Gifted”. And fate generously gifted T. Obminskyi with talents.
Obminsky as a teacher. He worked his way up from an assistant at the department of building structures to a professor and finally the rector of the Lviv Polytechnic in 1916-1917. The activity of the scientist as a successful teacher of the Lviv Polytechnic is reflected in the publication “Program Szkoly Politechnicznej” (1920-1921).
Obminsky as a researcher. A special interest of T. Obminsky is the wooden architecture of the Carpathians. In 1902-1914, traveling through Galicia, he collected information about folk architecture, made sketches and photographs, which he then exhibited at exhibitions in Kraków and Lviv. In 1914, the research materials were published as a separate collection “About wooden churches in Galicia”.
Obminskyi as a government official. In 1911-1919, T. Obminsky held the post of conservator of Eastern Galicia, and from 1920 – conservator of Lviv.
Obminskyi as an architect-designer. T. Obminskyi began his design career during the heyday of secession, and ended it in the 1930s, when secession had already given way to modernism.
T. Obminsky created his best projects while working in the architectural bureau of Ivan Levynsky. Here he had all the means to implement his boldest architectural decisions, because Levynsky’s factory provided the building not only with the usual building materials, but also with the decor that T. Obminsky used so skillfully. He believed that architecture should go hand in hand with sculpture and painting, leaving the main role to itself. Both architects T. Obminskyi and Levynskyi were fond of folk architecture, in this tandem the best works of the Ukrainian Secession (Art Nouveau) were born: the building of the “Dniester” insurance company at 20 Ruska St. (1905-1906), the building of the People’s House bursa at St. Lysenko (1906-1908), 14, Bursa building of the Ukrainian Pedagogical Society at 103 Chuprinka St. (1906-1909), Ukrainian Music Society Building at 5 Shashkevycha Square (1913-1916). T. Obminsky designed a number of prestigious residential buildings in the Art Nouveau style, the most famous of which is the Segal building (1905) at the intersection of Shevchenko Avenue and Skoryka Street.
In 1908, T. Obminsky became the head of the restoration works of the Latin Cathedral in Lviv. In the 1920s, he organized the drainage of the foundations and the covering of the building with a new copper roof.
The creative result of this activity was the book “Restauracje katedry lwowskiej: dawne I dzisiejsje” (1932), which the library received as a gift from the author on February 1, 1932, as evidenced by the entry in the inventory book and the provenance on the title page of the document.
The last creation of T. Obminskyi was the church of Mother of God Ostrobramska on Verkhnyi Lychakiv (Upper Lychakiv), the completion of which the architect didn’t see. T. Obminskyi died in 1932 and rests in the Lychakiv cemetery.
Sources and literature:
Yuriy Biryulyov From secession to functionalism: Tadeusz Obminskyi
Nataliya Kravchuk Architect Tadeusz Obminskyi and the Scientific and Technical Library of the National University “Lviv Polytechnic”
Ihor Zhuk Tadeusz Obminskii is a creator and researcher of sacred architecture
