Commissioned to architect Seyfi Arkan as a project for Atatürk, the pavilion was completed in 48 days and opened for use on 14 August 1935. The construction proceeded at such a rapid pace that, according to accounts, the complete skeleton of the structure emerged the week the pile drivers began driving in the foundation posts, the body of the building the second week and, finally, the pavilion in all its glory the fifth week. A grove was also laid out at Atatürk’s behest over the broad area where the ruins of the old Ayastefanos Monastery stood in Florya. Planted with pines, it was named the Atatürk Grove. The Florya Garden meanwhile was turned into a public park.

ATATÜRK’S LOVE OF THE SEA
Architect Seyfi Arkan, a student of architect Vedat Tek, was sent to Germany by the Turkish government where he studied in Berlin with the famous architect and architecture teacher of the day, Hans Poelzig. Known as an uncompromising modernist, Arkan returned to Turkey to build the Florya Pavilion as a modern architectural symbol of the Republic in the 1930s.