When the main building of the Lviv Polytechnic was built, the machine laboratory building was also constructed. It still serves as a research and teaching facility today.

Lviv Polytechnic - assumptions vs. reality
In the 1870s the first buildings of the Lviv Polytechnic were constructed in the area of Sapiehy Street (today's Bandery Street): the monumental main building and the smaller building of the Faculty of Chemistry facing St. George's Square. The designer of these buildings, Professor Julian Zachariewicz (1837-1898), assumed a capacity for 300 students per year. Until the beginning of the 20th century, this was a sufficient size, but later the number of students began to increase rapidly and the university suffered from the inconvenience of cramped conditions. Attempts were made to solve this problem by renting replacement rooms, but it was difficult to meet the standards of a modern technical university in this way.

Expansion of the main building of the Lviv Polytechnic
. In 1904-1905 the main building was expanded, two wings were added to accommodate six large auditoriums, amphitheatre halls for the chairs of mathematics and electrical engineering, and four large design rooms. In 1911, the second floor of the chemistry building was added. The problem was thus solved for a while, but returned after independence.

Acquiring new buildings, despite strenuous efforts, was not an easy task. It was decided to take over the nearby building of the Jan Długosz Grammar School No. 4, for which a new building was to be constructed in Potockiego Street (now Generala Czuprynky Street). However, this idea was not realised, as the building on Potockiego Street was eventually handed over to the Queen Jadwiga Female Gymnasium, which was in a dire housing situation.

In 1923, the university was allocated the building of the former women's prison in Ujejskiego Street (now Ustjanowycza Street), the so-called Magdalenka. The building was in need of renovation and it was not until 1928 that it was handed over to some faculty. In the spring of 1914, the construction of the first purpose-built building for scientific and teaching purposes - the machine laboratory building - began.

Machine Laboratory of the Lviv Polytechnic
. The building was to house facilities for the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering with laboratory rooms and an auditorium for 100 people. It was also intended to install a boiler house to heat all the university's facilities. Due to the war effort and then the unstable situation in the first post-war years, construction did not continue until 1924, and was completed three years later.

The architecture of the building is neoclassical in style: the axis of the façade is marked by a semicircular risalit, segmented by large-order Ionic pilasters. The main entrance is located in the side part of the building, in a separate annexe. It was emphasised by a high tower as a compositional dominant of the whole (it served as a water reservoir for hydrotechnical research).

The main, central room of the building was the machinery hall with an area of 740 square metres. Its interior, occupying the entire width of the floor plan, was accessed by side column porticoes. Adjacent to the hall on one side was the boiler room, and on the other was a set of school rooms that occupied four floors. There was, among other things, a mechanical and experimental station on the ground floor and a lecture theatre on the first floor. In addition, there were five departments: thermal machine theory, piston engine construction, machine measurement, metal technology and metalworking. The building also included workshop and experimental facilities for laboratory testing of machines and mechanisms.

Designer of the laboratory building of the Lviv Polytechnic
. The architectural design was created by Prof. Witold Minkiewicz (1880-1961), an outstanding designer and lecturer at the Lviv Polytechnic, and one of the most prominent representatives of Polish interwar architecture. His work evolved from classicism to modernist forms. However, as a representative of the older generation of architects of the interwar years, he remained an advocate of monumental effects in public utility architecture.

At the Lviv Polytechnic University, he headed the Department of Monumental Architecture, and expressed his love of historical architecture, among other things, in his conservation practice. In the 1930s, he worked on a project for the restoration of Olesko Castle. After the Second World War, he was entrusted with the position of head of the restoration of the Wawel Castle.

Further plans
The grounds belonging to the Lviv Polytechnic University were transformed over time into a small scientific district. In 1928, the adaptation of the premises of the "Magdalenka", which housed several departments, was completed. However, the construction of the building of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Electrotechnical Institute and the extension of the main building with two front wings were not completed. These were intended to symmetrically embrace the façade and link the main building architecturally with the planned Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The stately neo-classical façade of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, facing the main street, was to fill the space between the main building and the nearby Church of St Mary Magdalene. Eventually, a monumental building of the main library, designed by Tadeusz Obmiński, was erected on the site of the planned investment. This investment relieved some of the congestion in the main building, and the rooms vacated by the library were turned over to the Faculty of Architecture.

The laboratory building, which has been preserved in good condition, still serves as a research and teaching facility of the National University "Lviv Polytechnic".