Big name architect brings added prestige to Warsaw
They emerged with few details about the project - which remains in the design stage - but quite a lot about the developer's architect, Norman Foster. Hines hired Foster's company, Foster and Partners, to design the building, which will cost an estimated $200 million to construct and will house 40,000 square meters of Class A office space.
Foster and Partners is arguably the most famous architectural firm in the world. The company is responsible for the redesign of the British Museum in London, the master plan for Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament area in London, and the development of the new German Parliament (the Reichstag) in Berlin. Other, more recent, projects include a new headquarters for Commerzbank in Frankfurt, the new Hong Kong airport at Chek Lap Kok and a congress center for the city of Valencia.
"Given that Warsaw is not known for its architecture, the arrival of a company of (Foster and Partner's) size and prominence is excellent news," said Adam Kowalewski, vice president of Architects Planners & Consultants in Warsaw. "Architecturally, Warsaw is still isolated from the West. Anything that breaks up that isolation is a positive development."
The arrival of Foster marks the beginning of the design process for the plac Pilsudskiego office building. According to Gerald Hines, chairman and founder of Hines, a real estate developer that now has more than $8 billion worth of property assets worldwide, the project will commence in early 1999 and will take two years to complete.
Foster spoke for more than an hour about the need to create architecture with a "social focus," showing designs from architectural projects completed by his company in London, Hong Kong, Greece and Germany. He showed how the glass dome designed on the Reichstag, now open to the public, was "meant to symbolize the victory of democracy over totalitarianism."
Said Foster: "Parliament had a moral responsibility to be seen, and we sought to design a building that would satisfy that responsibility." But is there a demand for such high-minded architecture in Warsaw? As one development consultant noted, "you can hire the best architectural firm in the world, and it won't enable you to get permits any faster."
Exbud revamps project
Construction company Exbud presented a new design for its Exbud Plaza office development in an effort to calm residents of Saska Kepa district that protested against a previous version of the building.
Exbud Plaza is going to be the first office building in Warsaw developed by Exbud Development, the real estate unit of construction giant Exbud.
The original design for the building called for construction of a 17-story office and residential building. That design was rejected by the council and officials with the Praga Poludnie district, who said the building was too high for Saska Kepa and its luxury villas.
Exbud decided to change the project and to build a much smaller, seven-story building with three underground levels on the same site. The building will have two stories of office space while the rest will be high-end residential apartments.
"The land is expensive there so it makes no sense to build low buildings. But we hope that it's a compromise," said Bolena Samojluk, board member of Siodemka, an architectural firm and project manager for Exbud Plaza. Siodemka expected to complete the new project and present it to district authorities by the end of April.
Exbud hopes that local residents and authorities will accept this new design, enabling the company to launch construction this fall and complete the project by 2000.
In Brief:
- Global Hotels Development Group of Warsaw announced last month that it will develop a 144-room, four-star Holiday Inn Hotel in Gdansk. The new hotel will be part of the City Forum project, a mixed-use commercial project containing a shopping center, hotel and parking garage across from the main railway station in Gdansk.
"In our opinion, this is the best site in Gdansk, Gdynia or Sopot," said Maciej Herbich, director of Global Hotels Development, which hopes to open 20 Holiday Inn hotels within the next eight to nine years.
- Cinema operator and developer Multikino of Warsaw received a building permit last month to develop a nine-screen multiplex cinema in south Warsaw. The cinema will have seats for 2,300 people and will cost an estimated $20 million to build. Multikino, a joint venture between ITI Group and United Cinemas International (UCI), won a tender to lease the property from the Ursynow gmina in December 1996. But a third party claim to the property stalled the project for a year. "It's frustrating when you realize that we could have opened that cinema today," said Aldona Szostakowska, general director of Multikino, which hopes to open the Warsaw cinema in early 1999 and another multiplex in Poznan this June.
- Tomasz Stepien
contributed to this column.
Tomasz Stepien, , contributed to this story.
Foster and Partners is arguably the most famous architectural firm in the world. The company is responsible for the redesign of the British Museum in London, the master plan for Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament area in London, and the development of the new German Parliament (the Reichstag) in Berlin. Other, more recent, projects include a new headquarters for Commerzbank in Frankfurt, the new Hong Kong airport at Chek Lap Kok and a congress center for the city of Valencia.
"Given that Warsaw is not known for its architecture, the arrival of a company of (Foster and Partner's) size and prominence is excellent news," said Adam Kowalewski, vice president of Architects Planners & Consultants in Warsaw. "Architecturally, Warsaw is still isolated from the West. Anything that breaks up that isolation is a positive development."
The arrival of Foster marks the beginning of the design process for the plac Pilsudskiego office building. According to Gerald Hines, chairman and founder of Hines, a real estate developer that now has more than $8 billion worth of property assets worldwide, the project will commence in early 1999 and will take two years to complete.
Foster spoke for more than an hour about the need to create architecture with a "social focus," showing designs from architectural projects completed by his company in London, Hong Kong, Greece and Germany. He showed how the glass dome designed on the Reichstag, now open to the public, was "meant to symbolize the victory of democracy over totalitarianism."
Said Foster: "Parliament had a moral responsibility to be seen, and we sought to design a building that would satisfy that responsibility." But is there a demand for such high-minded architecture in Warsaw? As one development consultant noted, "you can hire the best architectural firm in the world, and it won't enable you to get permits any faster."
Exbud revamps project
Construction company Exbud presented a new design for its Exbud Plaza office development in an effort to calm residents of Saska Kepa district that protested against a previous version of the building.
Exbud Plaza is going to be the first office building in Warsaw developed by Exbud Development, the real estate unit of construction giant Exbud.
The original design for the building called for construction of a 17-story office and residential building. That design was rejected by the council and officials with the Praga Poludnie district, who said the building was too high for Saska Kepa and its luxury villas.
Exbud decided to change the project and to build a much smaller, seven-story building with three underground levels on the same site. The building will have two stories of office space while the rest will be high-end residential apartments.
"The land is expensive there so it makes no sense to build low buildings. But we hope that it's a compromise," said Bolena Samojluk, board member of Siodemka, an architectural firm and project manager for Exbud Plaza. Siodemka expected to complete the new project and present it to district authorities by the end of April.
Exbud hopes that local residents and authorities will accept this new design, enabling the company to launch construction this fall and complete the project by 2000.
In Brief:
- Global Hotels Development Group of Warsaw announced last month that it will develop a 144-room, four-star Holiday Inn Hotel in Gdansk. The new hotel will be part of the City Forum project, a mixed-use commercial project containing a shopping center, hotel and parking garage across from the main railway station in Gdansk.
"In our opinion, this is the best site in Gdansk, Gdynia or Sopot," said Maciej Herbich, director of Global Hotels Development, which hopes to open 20 Holiday Inn hotels within the next eight to nine years.
- Cinema operator and developer Multikino of Warsaw received a building permit last month to develop a nine-screen multiplex cinema in south Warsaw. The cinema will have seats for 2,300 people and will cost an estimated $20 million to build. Multikino, a joint venture between ITI Group and United Cinemas International (UCI), won a tender to lease the property from the Ursynow gmina in December 1996. But a third party claim to the property stalled the project for a year. "It's frustrating when you realize that we could have opened that cinema today," said Aldona Szostakowska, general director of Multikino, which hopes to open the Warsaw cinema in early 1999 and another multiplex in Poznan this June.
- Tomasz Stepien
contributed to this column.
Tomasz Stepien, , contributed to this story.
