Dom Towarowy Smyk
The Dom Towarowy Smyk (also called Dom Handlowy Smyk ) shopping center in downtown Warsaw is an architecturally outstanding functional building from the post-war period in Poland. The western design of the building aroused the anger of architectural followers of Soviet- determined socialist realism . Originally built as a general department store under the abbreviation “CDT” ( Centralny Dom Torwarowy ) between 1948 and 1952, it has served as a children's and toys store since 1971. The largest shop operated by the Smyk Group is currently located here .
location
The building is practically in a triangle of streets on Warsaw's east-west main traffic artery, Jerozolimskie-Allee, and is surrounded to the west by the four-lane Krucza-Strasse and to the northeast by the small Bracka-Strasse designed as a parking lot. Officially , Widok Street coming from Marszałkowska Street ends behind the building, but this stub of the street does not exist in practice. At the time of its construction, the shopping center was centrally located in what was then the main business district of Warsaw - between today's Dmowski and de Gaulle roundabouts. The address of the department store is Bracka Street 15/19, the neighboring building to the east (Bracka Street 16) with its distinctive, illuminated globe on the roof was the seat of the state tourism group Polskie Biuro Podróży Orbis .
history
In 1948, architects Zbigniew Ihnatowicz and Jerzy Romanski won the competition to build a modern department store, despite the modernist style they chose. Construction work on the building began in the same year. On July 22, 1951, the department store opened as Centralny Dom Torwarowy , or CDT for short . In the first three days, 80,000 people had already visited the shop.
Modern vs. Social realism
At the end of the construction period, the criticism of the building, which was designed in the late modern style, increased. The style no longer corresponded to the current requirement of building socialist-realistic buildings. The too “cosmopolitan” approach of the department store bothered ideological representatives in the city's building authorities. They tried to redesign the building, which was still under construction. Ihnatowicz and Romanski were able to finish the facade according to their plans, but had to hand over the interior design to the urban architecture office Miastoprojekt , who mixed the original look in the interior with elements of social realism. Although one of the most striking buildings of the early post-war period, the CDT was hardly mentioned in the trade press or illustrated books on Warsaw architecture in the first years of its existence due to its western style. If so, it was pointed out that it represented an outdated architecture concept. It was not until the late 1950s that Ihnatowicz and Romanski were able to redesign the interior according to their original plans as part of maintenance work. And it was only at this time that the architects' achievements could be publicly recognized:
“ It may be enough to look at a horse in front of the CDT and the face of its coachman to understand how outrageous they are in their obvious anachronism, and how good a modern car looks against this background (Polish: Dosc spojrzec na mnie konia i dorozkarza przylapanych przed CDT-em, aby uswiadomic sobie, jak dalece krepuje i oczywistosc anachronizmu, jak dobrze natomiast wyglada na tym tle nowoczesny samochod ) "
After the opening of larger department stores on Ściana Wschodnia on Marszałkowska Street, the CDT became the central children's department store in Warsaw. In 1964 there was a robbery in the department store, in which the perpetrators looted over one million złoty and shot a security guard.
The 1975 fire
On September 21, 1975, the building started to burn in the evening hours due to a defective elevator unit on the 6th floor. The floors below also burned out by midnight; there was also an explosion at 8:30 p.m. However, the concrete structure was not seriously damaged. In order to make the subsequent reconstruction inexpensive, the destroyed interior areas were restored much more simply than before the fire. By using a cheaper glass / aluminum construction, the outer facade also lost its vertical structure and thus much of its original charm. In 1977 the building - now renamed as the “Smyk” children's department store - was reopened. In the 1980s, the department store became part of the CDT group comprising Marszałkowska department stores .
After the turn
After Domy Towarowe Centrum (DTC) was privatized in 1998 , the “Smyk” department stores were separated from the CDT group in 2000; henceforth they formed as Smyk Sp. z oo. In March 2004 the parent holding company NFI Empik Media & Fashion (formerly NFI Hetman ) became Empik Media & Fashion (EM&F Group). In this phase, the entire retail and real estate business bundled here was split up. Dom Towarowy Smyk is now owned by Cedet Sp. Z oo , which is a subsidiary of the real estate development holding Centrum Development & Investments (CDI), which includes various department stores and shopping centers in Poland. The majority of the CDI belongs to the Eastbridge group . The retail chain "Smyk" is the main tenant of the property.
Planned development
The building complex is to be overhauled and expanded by 2012. For this purpose, the Belgian company Immobel took over the property from CDI. Due to the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, CDI had postponed the long-planned development of the building complex. The real estate recently taken over by the Eastbridge Group is now to carry out the plans.
Under the architects Andrzej Choldzynski (a former student of Ihnatowicz) and Wojciech Grabianowski from RKW Architektur + from Düsseldorf, a project was created that will increase the total usable area to 35,000 square meters. In addition to restoring the department store on Jerozolimskie-Allee to its original condition, the one-story low-rise building in the rear area, integrating the existing office building, is to give way to a modern overall development of the triangular area. The department store itself is to get its vertical and horizontal facade structure back on the basis of a wooden and metal frame. Presumably even the logo from the early years (CDT with a multi-level spiral) will be mounted on the facade. With its harmoniously interlocking, old and new building structures, the overall complex should look like an “overall crystal formed from several crystals” (“kryształem zbudowanym z mniejszych kryształów”). An additional restaurant is to be built on the upper floor of the new building.
architecture
The building was designed in the pre-war style of 1920s modernism popular in Warsaw. It is kept simple and functional and does not use any decorative elements that require special effects. When completed, the building complex comprised around 95,000 cubic meters of volume and 10,000 square meters of retail space. The ground floor and the five upper floors of the main building were sold. On a mezzanine level on the high ground floor, a café with 200 seats was set up facing the street, and there was a restaurant with around 400 seats on the top floor. In addition to the main building, two further units were erected: The single-storey low-rise building to the rear to the north housed the “Gastronomia” grocery store. The administration of the department store was housed in a separate 7-storey, small office building. Right next to the entrance to the office building, a ramp was built to the basement of the department store, via which trucks could deliver.
The building consists of a steel and concrete skeleton with elevator and stair cores. The facade with its round corners originally consisted of a metal and oak wood construction and was the first building in Warsaw to be glazed with sun protection. After the fire of 1975 and the subsequent renovation, a facade made of tinted and mirrored glass was placed on a cheaper aluminum construction; the vertical structures were lost. The facade of the south side facing Jerozolimskie-Allee was prepared to accommodate the large neon advertising (see picture).
Inside there were six 8-person and four freight elevators as well as escalators ; it was the second building in Warsaw to be equipped with escalators. The department store was also equipped with two regular and two emergency stairwells. The entrance hall was originally equipped with terracotta tiles on the walls and an oak floor. The sales rooms were dominated by concrete, steel and glass elements. In addition, sculptures and paintings in the postmodern style were used.
References and comments
- ^ Zbigniew Marian Ihnatowicz (1906–1995) was a Polish architect and university professor
- ↑ a b according to Article by Smyk: Fire and Light , in: Warsaw Insider , issue 8/2011 (180), Valkea Media SA, ISSN 1643-1723 , p. 14
- ↑ according to Krzysztof Jóźwiak, Smyk urośnie i odzyska dawną świetność in NaszeMiasto.pl from November 14, 2008 (in Polish)
- ↑ as per Huber (see LitVerz.) In the brochure “Wędrówki po Warszawie” (German: “Walks through Warsaw”). In 1950 Jan Minorski wrote in the “Architektura” magazine that the facade of the building was an expression of a “machinistic approach” to architecture that emerged from the teachings of Le Corbusier . This style is free of any "educational capacity".
- ↑ according to Jerzy S. Majewski, see LitVerz.
- ↑ according to Rafał Jabłoński, Ognisty wrzesień 1975 at ZycieWarszawy.pl from September 18, 2008 (in Polish)
- ↑ according to Information ( Memento of the original from August 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the holding's website (in English)
- ↑ according to Article CEDET to restore magnificence of Bracka Street in Warsaw on Europaproperty.com (in English)
- ↑ according to Katarzyna Piasecka, Immobel enters the Polish market ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the supplement Local Immobilia of the Warsaw Business Journal of February 28, 2011 (in English)
- ↑ according to Warsaw, Poznan. Immobel takes over Okralag and Smyk , at: News and Announcements in "Inwestor", issue 3/2011 (March), Investpress, Warsaw 2011, p. 14.
- ↑ according to Article Smyk odzyska dawny blask, dobudowana zostanie również przeszklona część biurowa on NaszeMiasto.pl from February 20, 2011
- ↑ according to Michał Wojtczuk, Oto nowy Smyk. Nowy właściciel rozbuduje budynek in Gazeta.pl on February 14, 2011 (in Polish)
literature
- Werner Huber, Warsaw - Phoenix from the ashes. An architectural city guide , Verlag Böhlau, ISBN 3-412-14105-4 , Cologne 2005, p. 85 ff.
- Jerzy S. Majewski, Spacerownik. Warszawa Sladami PRL-u, Books of Walks. Landmarks of People's Poland in Warsaw , from the series: Biblioteka Gazety Wyborczej , Agora SA, ISBN 978-83-932220-0-1 , Warsaw 2010, pp. 20-27.
Web links
- Description in Warsaw Wiki (in Polish)
- Views of the department store after the planned renovation and expansion in 2012
Coordinates: 52 ° 13 '52.9 " N , 21 ° 1' 0.7" E