Pāvils Dreijmanis

Pāvils Dreijmanis (4 February 1895, Aloja, Russian Empire – 21 August 1953, Adelaide, Australia) was a Latvian architect and recipient of the Cross of Recognition medal and the Order of the Three Stars.

After the liberation battles, Dreijmanis resumed his studies and in 1923 graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Latvia.

In exile after the war, he worked freelance as a professor at the Baltic University in Pinneberg, Germany, then moved to Australia and settled in Adelaide.

Some elements of Art Deco can be seen in D. Zariņš' work and Maydell's bank building at 4, Doma Square (1926), the entrance and transaction hall of which were renovated 1994.

The dramatic image of the movie hall has only been preserved in the memories of the older generation and in some old photographs since it was burned down completely during the war.

Dreijmanis had interpreted ethnographic motifs in the Art Deco style and he decorated the building in a supremely competent way.

The residential house at 3, Ausekļa Street (1927) is the most impressive Art Deco building of Dreijmanis' creative legacy and in Latvian architecture in general.

Dreijmanis largest project was the design of Riga Central Market that was then the biggest complex of its kind in Europe.

A detailed design was worked out by the architect A. Pavlov (later he had a large practice in Rēzekne), and the civil engineers V. Isajev and G. Tolstoy.

Riga Central Market is a modern trading complex with vast cold store refrigerators in the basement.

Even to this seemingly impersonal architecture of a market, Dreijmanis managed to add several artistic finishing details, which reflect the Art Deco style of the time.

For outstanding public service Pāvils Dreijmanis was awarded the Atzinības krusts medal and the Order of the Three Stars.