Facelift for DC

Dworzec Centralny looked set for a radical overhaul in December 2000, when Polish Railways (PKP) SA announced a tender to rebuild and refurbish one of Warsaw's most famous eyesores.

Four companies, American Tishman Speyer Properties, Dutch ING Real Estate (which is currently completing Złote Tarasy), Swedish Skanska together with German ECE, and Tantex, an unknown Polish company, took part, but PKP canceled the tender. There was no reason given at the time, but the rumor was that PKP had expected a Polish company to come up with the best offer.

Now, five years later, PKP has signed an intention letter with DB Station & Service, a German railroad operator, which is just completing a huge railway station in Berlin. Dr Reinhard Schweppe, Germany's Ambassador to Poland, recently opened an exhibition presenting the Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof, which will be officially opened in May, in time for the FIFA World Cup. The modern railroad station, worth some EUR 800,000 (zł.3.5 million), is part of a new and modern district with office centers, shopping malls and blocks of apartments. Ironically, the company behind the German project is American firm Tishman, which had earlier prepared an interesting design for the station and Al. Jerozolimskie.

The deal between the Polish and German railroad operators largely concerns the exchange of information connected with station development, passenger services and cooperation between stations and local authorities.

"We want to learn from the German experience," says Robert Kuczyński, marketing director at PKP SA. "It does not mean that we are going to rebuild Dworzec Centralny soon. [A refurbishment would] not solve all the problems. We would have to erect a new railway station."

Despite this, it looks as if Dworzec Centralny is set for a face-lift. Epstein has worked out a new design for the station, which Waldemar Grzyb, director of Dworce Kolejowe PKP, the company that manages the station, intends to implement. The proposal includes rebuilding the main hall, and linking the western and eastern wings of the station with a suspended bridge, which will be lined with shops. However, no specific dates for the works have been set.