The Istanbul 4th Vakıf Han is a historical large office building located in the Sirkeci neighbourhood of the

Eminönü Eminönü is a predominantly commercial waterfront area of Istanbul within the Fatih district near the confluence of the Golden Horn with the southern entrance of the Bosphorus strait and the Sea of Marmara. It is connected to Karaköy (historic G ...

quarter within the Fatih district of

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. It is owned by the Foundations Administration ( tr, Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü). Currently, it is used as a

five star hotel Hotel ratings are often used to classify hotels according to their quality. From the initial purpose of informing travellers on basic facilities that can be expected, the objectives of hotel rating have expanded into a focus on the hotel experie ...

of the World Park Hotel chain named Legacy Ottoman.

History

The building was designed in 1911 by architect Kemaleddin Bey (1870–1927), director of the Construction and Restoration Department at the Ottoman Ministry of Foundations ( Ottoman Turkish: ''Evkaf Nezareti''). It is styled in First Turkish National architecture, also called Ottoman Revivalism. It was constructed between 1916 and 1926 in the place of "Hamidiye

Külliye A külliye ( ota, كلية) is a complex of buildings associated with Turkish architecture centered on a mosque and managed within a single institution, often based on a waqf (charitable foundation) and composed of a madrasa, a Dar al-Shifa ("c ...

si", the religious buildings complex which belonged to Sultan

Abdul Hamid I Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid I ( ota, عبد الحميد اول, ''`Abdü’l-Ḥamīd-i evvel''; tr, Birinci Abdülhamid; 20 March 1725 – 7 April 1789) was the 27th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigning over the Ottoman Empire from 1774 ...

(reigned 1774–1789). It was built to meet the high demand for office blocks at the area in the early years of the 20th century. The completion of the construction took many years due to the participation of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in the Balkan Wars and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. During the occupation of Istanbul by the Allies following

, French troops, which were stationed in the old city zone, used the (at that time incomplete) building from 1920 to 1923 as barracks, calling it ''Caserne Victor''. In the last decades of the 20th century, the building housed the

Istanbul Stock Exchange The Borsa İstanbul (abbreviated as BIST) is the sole exchange entity of Turkey combining the former Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) ( tr, İstanbul Menkul Kıymetler Borsası, IMKB), the Istanbul Gold Exchange ( tr, İstanbul Altın Borsası, İA ...

, as well as the offices of bankers and financiers. In 1995 the Istanbul Stock Exchange moved to its current building in the

İstinye İstinye is a neighbourhood in Istanbul, Turkey, on the European side of the city. It is located in the district of Sarıyer, between the neighbourhoods of Emirgan and Yeniköy, on the northwestern shore of the Bosporus strait. It is one of the ...

neighbourhood, near Maslak business district.

Architecture

The building, constructed with a steel skeleton frame, has seven floors including the basement. It is on the entrance side in Hamidiye Avenue long, and rises high while its maximum width is . It has an atrium with the dimensions . The facades in the west, south and east are covered by cut stone and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

, while the rear facade in the north is covered by stucco applied bricks. The building, flanked by two turrets, originally had two symmetrically placed entrances in between 24 shops with a mezzanine. The entrances open up to both corners of a U-shaped passage. In the above four floors, there were a total of 148 office rooms of equal size for rent, 37 at each floor. At the end of the passage, two stairways and elevators enable to reach the upper floors. The distance between the two stairways is with respect to the fire precaution regulation of that time. There exists also a service stairway in the middle of the backside running from the ground floor to the mansard, which was unusual compared to other Ottoman business buildings of that period.

Redevelopment

In 2000, the building was emptied with the intention to be used as a court. After standing vacant for four years, the Istanbul 4th Vakıf Han was leased to the company Gap-San Eserler for a lease term of 25 years and monthly payment of 44,000 (approx. US$29,350 as of August 2006) for redevelopment and conversion into a five-star hotel. The restoration work, which lasted twelve months and cost 30 million (approx. US$20 million as of August 2006), was completed in 2006. After four years of development phase, the annual lease was increased to 148,000 (approx. US$94,300 as of 2009), and its value will be updated every four years. In order to place the hotel entrance with the reception area in a central position, the two original entrances were cancelled and the shop in the middle position was restructured as the main entrance. Beside arranging the mansard roof as a restaurant, no other significant changes were made in the historical building.

Legacy Ottoman Hotel

The Legacy Ottoman Hotel opened on July 2, 2006 as the only five-star hotel in Eminönü. The hotel consists of 153 luxury rooms and 19 suites in total.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Istanbul 4th Vakif Han First Turkish National architecture Office buildings completed in 1926 Office buildings in Turkey Fatih Hotels in Istanbul Redevelopment projects in Istanbul Hotels established in 2006 2006 establishments in Turkey Mimar Kemaleddin buildings