The Art Nouveau inspired facade was erected in a new and – for the time – advanced way, namely as a curtain-wall, where the prefabricated sandstone components were hung up on the bearing structure located 63 cm within the façade.
It is not known precisely where the name Løvenborg comes from, but a guess is inspired by a very popular inn, Løven, that up until 1895 was located on the corner of Vesterbrogade and Stenogade.
Løvenborg became a protected building in 1985 after a recommendation from the special building inspection. The reason: “Architecturally, the building is one of the most valuable Art Nouveau buildings in Denmark.” Ten years later, Statens Bygningsfredningsfond (the State Building Preservation Society) purchased the front house and the façade was restored by Skov og Naturstyrelsen (The Danish Forest and Nature Agency) in 1996.
The Dreyer Foundation acquired Løvenborg in 2000, and in 2004 it received the Europa Nostra award for Hanne Kjærholm and Birthe Just’s renovation of the building. Løvenborg houses the foundation’s headquarters, as well as the Hotel Savoy, an Emmerys bakery, and offices, along with the foundation’s guest apartment for the art academy’s foreign visiting professors on the fifth floor.
Link to Europa Nostra
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