(b Budapest, 3 Sept 1876; d Budapest, 28 June 1934). Hungarian architect. After graduating from the Architectural High School, Budapest, he studied (1896–9) under Paul Wallot at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Dresden and worked for a year in Munich with Theodor Fischer. After a study trip to Paris and Italy he returned to Budapest in 1902, where he was employed in the office of Rezso Ray (1874–1938) until he opened his own office in 1905. His first significant work was the multi-purpose town hall (c. 1906; with Henrik Kotál), Kiskunhalas, which reflects the influence of Hungarian Secessionism in its characteristic broken cornice and gable, embroidery-pattern plasterwork and arrow loops. A high sturdy tower dominates the picturesque grouping of the building’s masses. In contrast his elementary school (1909) on Szentendrei Street, Budapest, two-storey with gables and a high roof, is influenced by the objectivity and simplicity of Fischer’s designs such as the school building (1902–4), Elisabethplatz, Munich. The Hotel Astoria (1913), Budapest, reveals a classicizing, monumental conception of form. On the ground floor Hikisch placed an elegant marble-columned foyer, and there is a horizontal ‘girdle’ of windows on the first floor. The balustraded window balconies on the second, third and fourth floors are separated by huge pilasters, above which is a massive cornice. The moderate use of neo-classical ornament, such as ionic columns and key-pattern string courses, characterizes his later work, including the block of small flats (1927; with Ferenc Paulheim), Bécsi Street, Budapest, and the Fenyo Villa (c. 1930), Városmajor Street, Budapest. His tomb designs and monuments express a love of celebratory, grand forms, with subtle classical details, as in his several designs (1903–32; unexecuted) for a monument to Queen Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.