Blue Tower Plaza

Błękitny Wieżowiec with Aleja Solidarności seen from the north in April 2017.

The Blue Tower Plaza is a high-rise office building in Warsaw . It is known by Warsaw residents as Błękitny Wieżowiec (Sky Blue Skyscraper ) or Srebrny Wieżowiec (Silver Skyscraper ) and was previously (before the modernization of the cladding) called Złocisty or Złoty Wieżowiec (Golden Skyscraper ). The building, which was erected over a period of 26 years, is located on the site of the Great Synagogue, which was blown up after the suppression of the ghetto uprising under Jürgen Stroop .

location

The skyscraper is located on Plac Bankowy (No. 2) in the city's downtown district. Here the ulica Marszałkowska begins and crosses the east-west route . In the historical district there are various noteworthy buildings , mostly rebuilt after the Second World War , in the immediate vicinity : the Arsenal , the Mniszech and Blue Palaces, the former palaces of the Treasury Minister used by the city administration and the Government Commission for Income and Finance . The building of the former stock exchange and national bank , the Hotel Saski , which has been converted into an office, and the modern Senator office building in the former Polish national bank are also within sight .

The Blue Tower Plaza is located directly at the Ratusz / Arsenal metro station .

history

The first plans for a high-rise building began in the 1950s, but it wasn't until 1965 that construction work began on the building, which was supposed to reach a height of 80 meters. The architects were Jerzy Czyż, Andrzej Skopiński and Jan Furman. First, the load-bearing steel construction was created, which was then provided with a cladding made of gold anodized aluminum and bronze-colored mirror glass. In this shell condition, construction work was stopped in 1967 due to problems with the foundation and the property was unused for the next few years; it received the name of the "golden skyscraper" from the population. Some Warsaw residents claimed that a rabbi's curse was on the object and that it would therefore never be completed. In fact, Jewish organizations protested against the construction on the site of the former synagogue. After a long dispute, those involved agreed on the installation of a Jewish memorial room in the new building. In 1971, a modernized version of the building was developed, which now provided for an increase in the high-rise building to a roof height of 100 meters. Work on this project continued from 1974 until the construction was again demolished in 1980.

In 1986 construction work was resumed under the direction of architects Lech Robaczyński and Marzena Leszczynska (company Wadeco Sp. Z oo ). The construction plans had meanwhile been lost and had to be recreated. The general contractor was the Yugoslav company Generalexport-Giposs . The old cladding was replaced by a mirrored all-glass facade. This measure was taken to alleviate the disruption of the city skyline , which has now been recognized by the building, which is questionable in terms of urban planning; in fact, thanks to the facade reflecting the sky, it is no longer so noticeable today. The construction work was completed in 1991. The current owner is First Property Sp.z oo , the main tenants are Bank Pekao and PKO Bank Polski . For a long time, Peugeot was represented with a highly visible logo at the top of the building; Previously there was a logo of the former tenant Sony , now the logo of the insurance company MetLife is attached to the upper floors.

The high-rise is 100 meters high (120 meters with antenna) and has 27 above-ground and 2 underground floors with around 22,500 square meters of office space. The multi-storey, stepped building base houses smaller shops, restaurants, bank branches and a Peugeot sales room.

References and comments

↑ according to Małgorzata Danecka, Thorsten Hoppe: Discover Warsaw. Tours through the Polish capital , Trescher Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89794-116-8 , Berlin 2008.

literature

Werner Huber: Warsaw - Phoenix from the ashes. An architectural city guide. Verlag Böhlau, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-412-14105-4 , pp. 140 f.

Web links

Commons : Blue Tower Plaza - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Operator's website
Information from Wieżowce Warszawy (accessed on August 28, 2012, in English)
Information at Urbanity.pl (accessed on August 28, 2012, in Polish)

52.244408333333 21.002505555556Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 39.9 ″ N , 21 ° 0 ′ 9 ″ E

[1] rding to Małgorzata Danecka, Thorsten Hoppe: Discover Warsaw. Tours through the Polish capital , Trescher Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89794-116-8 , Berlin 2008.