An Apartment House in Vienna

A work of Otto Wagner, one is lead to presume?

An excellent presumption, Mr Schmalzel, because a correct one: built in 1888, and thus a transitional work of the master.
Universitätsstrasse 12 is the address, not far from the dull if worthy Votivkirche.
Sadly, the invitingly empty looking “Cafehaus” which stretches its generous length across the whole of the ground floor is long gone – replaced by dull shops of various avoidable kinds.
The people, or at least the city fathers, of Vienna appear to like the building: for the Otto-Wagner-Platz is also close by.
The wonderfully eccentric logician Kurt Gödel lived in the building behind for some months in 1927. By “eccentric” I of course mean “mad” – the poor man refuse to touch any food not prepared by his wife. She went into hospital in 1977, and when she came out six months later he was dead.

I love the story of Goedel’s becoming an American citizen; a very amusing one perhaps worthy of a blog-post of its own.

An indented statue! So sorely missed among the apartment buildings of today: all that obsessive focus on featureless form just hurts so much.