"It's no use showing what you have done, if it doesn't convince what you have done" - Interview with architect Leon Srulovici

Simina Stan: The first question is about how you decided to do Architecture. Leon Srulovici: In the beginning, when I stopped school, I got a job as a salesman in a shop selling trinkets and trinkets in Calea 13 Septembrie, and when I had free time one Sunday, I stole a pole and they threw me out. My brother's teacher recommended me to the architectural firm of D.G. Galin and L.A. Hirsch. I was 13 when I got a job as an office boy, getting coffees, cleaning, later became a draftsman. I was happy. First I had a job, I had something to eat. And secondly, fortunately, by going into an environment of architects, I learned to love it. Good people came. Foreign languages were spoken. At first, I was getting bus fare, then slowly, slowly I got paid regularly. The office of D.G. Galin and L.A. Hirsch was located at the beginning of Clemenceau Street, to get there I took bus no. 4, which went to Stirbei Voda, I lived in the commune of Apărătorii Patriei. I was very poor. My mother was a widow with three children. I was 13 and the oldest. She worked hard to raise us. My mother was originally from Bessarabia, she fled to Romania in 1915. She worked in an embroidery workshop, where good people came. To learn French she asked a priest from the cathedral to help her learn French and German, but he taught her black. She had two elementary grades in Bessarabia. My mother spoke to me in French and Russian, and the teacher who taught me math was Hungarian and taught me in Hungarian. I went to high school privately, I took my exams privately, I had to go to work to earn money. I made up the difference in my schooling and from 1940-1942 I attended a college for Jewish students run by Professor Ernest Abason, and Harry Stern was in charge of the architecture part. After August 23, I was recognized for two years and went to the "Ion Mincu" Institute of Architecture, where, of course, my work during my youth in an architectural office opened up various horizons and gave me certain advantages, first as a student-architect and then as an architect. I had an ascendancy over my colleagues, I used to tease them by sketching sketches and projects, until I graduated in 1951. S.S.: Who was your first studio teacher? L.S.: My first studio teacher was Duiliu Marcu, then partly Professor Octav Doicescu. As I was not supported by anyone, I was still working for the owner during my studies. After 1945 I worked intermittently for the architects Galin and Pinchis. At Duiliu Marcu's I was a draughtsman in his studio, when he opened a design studio in the Victoria Palace. After getting my diploma, fortunately having a decent reputation, I immediately found a job. It wasn't easy in those days. In the end these unfavorable circumstances, so to speak, served me well and that's what made me have works, I had an intense competitive activity. I won prizes in competitions, which were published in Arhitectura magazine. S.S.: Do you remember the first architectural competition you participated in? L.S.: The first competition in which I participated was on behalf of the architects Dori Galin Golingher and Ion Țărușanu, in the competition for the Royal Palace Square in 1942, I did not have the right to sign. Later on I participated as a member of the UAR, alone or together with the architect George Filipeanu, with whom I worked a lot and won important prizes such as the National Theater in Bucharest or the Craiova Theater. S.S.: Do you remember which of architect Dori Galin Golingher's projects you worked on? L.S.: He was my first employer, from whom I learned my trade. He was very talented and skillful, he has very beautiful works, among which I would mention: the Zambaccian house, Vittorio Possa's house on Aleea Alexandru and the Anghelide villa in Predeal. I had a limited contribution to Galin's houses, he would give me a few things to do, but he left his mark on his work. He worked, he drew, he finished, he asked me to study this, to do that, but he dominated. I didn't always agree with his views. We collaborated on the Anghelide villa, the Royal Palace of Scroviștea, the Sipoș house in Bd. Lascăr Catargiu, the Canarache house in Popa Tatu. Under these conditions I had the opportunity to create an architecture that was in the taste of the time. Dori Galin Golingher worked with the architect Alexandru Zaharia, who then left the country. They were collaborators. Alexandru Zaharia was very well regarded, he had connections in the aristocracy of the time, even in the society of King Charles II. He would get the works, he didn't work, and Golingher would fill in for him, it was his Cyrano de Bergerac. Zachariah wasn't interested in it, he was more interested in business, in ladies. I knew Alexandre Zaharia, we spoke French. I was also an employee of Duiliu Marcu, one of the very best Romanian architects, unjustly criticized by some. S.S.: Was the Botoșani Theater your first project? L.S.: In the year when we moved from the modern style of architecture to the traditional one and we started to do a so-called traditional architecture, at that first moment a sadness settled over the architects' blanket, Ascanio Damian told us who knows one way knows another way. Then I started to do some works, some of them more impressed and inspired by the pompieristic style that was emerging at that time, like the theater in Botoșani and others, but most of them with restraint. I was inspired by the tradition, but not the pompous one. The Botoșani theater was subordinated to the rigors of official architecture in the 1950s. S.S.: What competitions or projects do you consider to represent your work? L.S.: The 1968 competition for the Midia resort. If the theme of the competition says that you have to make a luxury resort, what can I do with a flat place where absolutely nothing could be done. The land slopes down to the sea, as is normal. It rises towards Mamaia village. In the project that I proposed, at a convenient distance from the sea in order to build some beaches, some bays, I proposed a breakwater, made of living objects, of accommodation rooms, of low height, because the land falls there, it is not a convenient height, from there I made two bays and a breakwater that rises 10 meters, made of living rooms. At this height the building became horizontal and formed a cliff where people could walk. On this cliff were hotels. People who walked on this cliff also had covered space. Of course they were objects of spatial urbanism. It's been recognized, first prize. It was later the inspiration for other resorts, Cap Aurora and others. I have the satisfaction, however, that my work didn't remain drawer paper and materialized. The biggest problems were caused by the Arcașul Hotel in Suceava, which sparked protests. Hotel next to the church, but fortunately the first secretary, Emil Bobu, allowed me to build this hotel next to the church, which later benefited from it, being restored. It was going to be built in a grove of ancient fir trees, that's why I put in the construction estimate the consolidation of the fir trees and I snuck in with the hotel among the fir trees. When the Ministry of Tourism awarded me the project, they wanted a building and I got it, but they still built another one next to it. At the hotel in Sulina I did something else. I turned the Danube into a kind of bay, the hotel was located on one of the banks of the bay, and when you opened the window, the water was at the "feet" of the hotel. All my projects are mentioned in the book Architects during the dictatorship. Memories, coordinated by dr. arh. Viorica Curea. S.S.: What is your secret? L.S.: I got to this age, 92, because I did sports as an amateur, skiing, swimming. Until the age of 85 I used to run for almost an hour every day in Cișmigiu. Where I worked, at IPC, IPCT, Project Carpați, I was doing my work, but at 1.30 p.m. I would put down my pen, get on my moped with my wife on my back and go to the Kiseleff swimming pool, where I swam for an hour every day. ARHITECTURA nr. 4, 1969, p. 56-59, Competition of ideas Craiova Theater

ARHITECTURA nr. 6, 1965, p. 46-47, Competition for the systematization of the urbanistic ensemble Piața Podul Roșu - Iași. Prize I-II ex aequo, George Filipeanu, Leon Srulovici, eng. Nicolae Mărgărit The value of this project consists in the proposed solution of the architectural framework of the neighborhood center in the square ensemble. It favorably resolves the arrangement of objects on the site in just volume ratios, aiming to obtain valuable perspectives, both from the outside to this ensemble and from it to the points and areas of interest of the city.

ARCHITECTURE no. 4, 1968, p. 41-43, Hotel Arcașul in Suceava, Leon Srulovici Hotel Arcașul is located in the vicinity of the central part of the city, in a historical monument reservation area. The land on which the hotel is being built is being intensively planted and will in the future be incorporated into a green magistral that will link the city center with the Zamca Monastery area. The immediate vicinity of the historical and architectural monuments - "St. Nicole Prăjescu" Church and Costin Tarangul House - as well as the nature of the terrain - a 7% slope - were the factors that determined the hotel solution. A composition of volumes of reduced height (p+2, p+3) was adopted, with the Costin Tarangul buildings and the "St. Nicholas" Church being an integral part of this composition. The volumes are grouped around partially open enclosures, which approximate the character of traditional buildings of this kind in our country.

ARHITECTURA nr. 10, 1956, p. 5, Reconstruction of the "Mihail Eminescu" Theater in Botoșoni

Midia resort* At the end of 1968 a competition of ideas for the future Midia seaside resort, proposed to be built between 1971-1975, is announced. "The timeliness of the competition stems from the need to search for new solutions which would contribute to the realization of a varied aspect of our coastline during the phased construction". Located to the north of the resort of Mamaia and within the following boundaries: to the south - the village of Mamaia, to the west - the Danube-Black Sea Canal, to the north - the Năvodari Children's Camp, to the east - the Black Sea. Area - 300 ha, including the beach. The land consists of two terraces separated by a cliff, with level differences of 2-10 m.

The jury headed by Ascanio Damian awarded, on February 21, 1969, the I-II Prize ex aequo ex aequo to the project realized by the architects George Filipeanu, Leon Srulovici. In the supporting memorandum it is stated: "The territory provided is not very favorable. The relationship between the depth of the terrace and the beach front, as well as the slightly steep cliff (10 m), mean that the site does not suggest or facilitate an interesting, plastic organic composition, which is also helped by the implacable parallelism of the natural elements (the sea, the beach, the lower terrace, the canal). The desire to bring the locality closer to the sea and to give a greater plasticity to the relief eventually led us to the solution we present here. What we would like to emphasize as special in the project is the idea of extending the seafront with some buildings containing housing and facilities (3 and 2 levels respectively) as seawalls that advance towards the sea. These breakwaters have the level of the terrace-top rigorously at the level of the cliff, so that pedestrians walk along the terrace as if they were on paths which, through the varied perspectives opened on the settlement and the sea, give the illusion of the inhabitants of the upper terrace of the site being close to the beach. Punctuated by terraced blocks (level 4, which corresponds to the +10 m level of the cliff, is not built with dwellings so as not to obstruct the view of the landscape) and by amenities, these sea walls form large enclosures open towards the sea, containing general amenities inside and living quarters outside. These three enclosures are also compositional nuclei around which the whole composition of the resort revolves. They contain most of the commercial activity, representing the moments of maximum social cohesion in the resort. In addition, three tall towers (20 levels) mark the pivots, virtual compositional centers. Another feature of the ensemble is the small lake created by widening the Siut-Ghiol-Tașaul canal, which represents a fourth compositional nucleus consisting mainly of general facilities. The general silhouette of the settlement is emphasized by the fact that it increases in height from the sea towards the upper terrace of the land, emphasizing the relief by increasing the number of building levels in the upper terrace area. The stepped silhouette of the blocks on the lower terrace also contributes to this intention. Out of the total land area of 2,765,000 square meters, 214,600 square meters were to be built-up area, the rest was to be roadway, sports fields, beach 300,000 square meters, green areas of 590,000 square meters, parks, lawns, alignment plantings, protective plantings." *Archive Union of Romanian Architects ARCHITECTURE no. 2, 1969, Mailuc resort ideas competition