The Reconstruction of the Ráday College To Be Completed Soon

The building complex, which also houses the headquarters of the Danubian Reformed Church District in Budapest, is currently scaffolded and covered behind a protective net in Ráday Street. Four storeys of the new building, which was built on the site of a dormitory that burnt down in January 2019 and was then demolished, have already been completed. The dormitory will have forty-eight double rooms with terraces and private bathrooms. There will be a garage under the building and a panoramic terrace on top. The headquarters centre will also have a chapel and the façade will be restored to the way it looked a hundred years ago.

Rooftop terrace and spiritual centre

Zoltán Berzsák has designed several Reformed churches in recent years. This time, he has designed the Ráday and Köztelek Street wings of the college and the Bishop's office. As he told Reformátusok Lapja, the weekly magazine of RCH, he was not only excited to bring back the traditions of the Ráday Street centre in a modern approach, but also to create and make the spaces used by the different institutions work together.

While the previous building could only be accessed from Ráday Street, the new part of the building will have a prominent entrance from the opposite end, the Markusovszky Square, from where the college, the Seminary, the Ráday Library and the Bible Museum will be accessible, the architect told the newspaper. Besides the new dormitory building, perhaps the biggest change will be the new attic on the top floor of the Ráday and Köztelek Street wing, which will function as a kind of spiritual centre.

On schedule

"Given the volume of work is approximately twenty-five percent of the building complex may be ready," said project manager László Seres, who added that the project is on schedule. The buildings should be ready for construction by the end of September, but this phase is likely to be completed by the end of August. The buildings should be structurally completed by the end of September, but this phase is likely to be completed already by the end of August. The last, fifth floor of the dormitory is already under construction, and everything that needed to be demolished in Ráday Street has been dismantled. The new walls are mostly finished and plastering is under way. Work has also started on the mechanical and electrical installations, and the basic wiring has already been installed.

Missing spaces

"I feel like we’ve turned into the finish line. The architects and the contractor have had an exciting task until now, identifying all the problems and challenges of the old building and exploring its potential. But for us it will be exciting from now on, because we are imagining how life will be within the walls," Zoltán Balog told the newspaper.

The Bishop hopes that the building will be fully completed by September 2022, and the Seminary will not have to waste another year in its temporary seat. It is important that the Ráday street dormitory is built as soon as possible, as living and learning together is an important part of the training of pastors. This is time when the spiritual community formed and the common language is shaped, which will allow pastors later on to communicate with each other in the Church District and the entire Reformed Church in Hungary, he explained. According to the Bishop, these spaces are sorely lacking at the moment, and that is why it is important that the students can move in as early as next September.