Architects build business with Western investment
The former state-owned architecture firm had a monopoly on that market and had an exclusive contract with the Polish Association for the Blind, designing apartment buildings with very detailed requirements, for example, specially shaped balconies to muffle street noise and walls bright enough for partially blind people to see.
The association got backing from the West and provided a steady, if not lucrative, business for APA. But when Western funds to the association were cut off following the fall of communism, members of the former state-run firm had to search for new business.
"We practically lost the whole market," said architect Szymon Wojciechowski, who together with Andrzej Markowski and Zbigniew Pawelski founded APA as a private firm in 1993.
The strategy: Branch out and target new Western investors in Poland. Back then, APA competed with a handful of other foreign firms entering the building design market. Today, APA is one of about two dozen firms vying mainly for foreign cash in an increasingly competitive market. (See list of Polish architectural firms on pages 14-15.)
APA's first project after going private was renovating a building for Amerbank and Bankers Trust in downtown Warsaw. And the $2 million, 1,900 square meter renovation of an old socialist-era building was no easy task.
"When we opened an unused room, the first thing we saw was the head of Lenin," said Wojciechowski. "And the restaurant had the smell of 20-year-old cutlets."
Other complications involved finding a contractor and industrial materials.
The project proved to be the first of many renovations for APA, which boasted zl 1.4 million ($583,000) for the first three quarters of 1995, compared to zl. 570,000 ($237,500) for all of 1994. Other renovations include the Coca-Cola offices inside Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science and turning an old television-tube factory into a shampoo factory for Procter & Gamble.
Major design projects include the Nestle-Goplana candy factory near Poznan, three convenience stores opened recently in Warsaw by Texaco and Warsaw office buildings for Microsoft and ING Bank.
APA, which employs seven architects and 11 support staff members, does most of its work in the industrial and engineering field. Designing for the sake of art and competitions is not even a consideration.
The association got backing from the West and provided a steady, if not lucrative, business for APA. But when Western funds to the association were cut off following the fall of communism, members of the former state-run firm had to search for new business.
"We practically lost the whole market," said architect Szymon Wojciechowski, who together with Andrzej Markowski and Zbigniew Pawelski founded APA as a private firm in 1993.
The strategy: Branch out and target new Western investors in Poland. Back then, APA competed with a handful of other foreign firms entering the building design market. Today, APA is one of about two dozen firms vying mainly for foreign cash in an increasingly competitive market. (See list of Polish architectural firms on pages 14-15.)
APA's first project after going private was renovating a building for Amerbank and Bankers Trust in downtown Warsaw. And the $2 million, 1,900 square meter renovation of an old socialist-era building was no easy task.
"When we opened an unused room, the first thing we saw was the head of Lenin," said Wojciechowski. "And the restaurant had the smell of 20-year-old cutlets."
Other complications involved finding a contractor and industrial materials.
The project proved to be the first of many renovations for APA, which boasted zl 1.4 million ($583,000) for the first three quarters of 1995, compared to zl. 570,000 ($237,500) for all of 1994. Other renovations include the Coca-Cola offices inside Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science and turning an old television-tube factory into a shampoo factory for Procter & Gamble.
Major design projects include the Nestle-Goplana candy factory near Poznan, three convenience stores opened recently in Warsaw by Texaco and Warsaw office buildings for Microsoft and ING Bank.
APA, which employs seven architects and 11 support staff members, does most of its work in the industrial and engineering field. Designing for the sake of art and competitions is not even a consideration.
