Unique stretch of 'natural' growth

Continuing our feature on office development along where Aleje Jerozolimskie careers away from Warsaw's CBD, we interview the Project Director of E&L Architects, designers of several buildings along this part of the city. Eurobuild asks the director to give some further insight into the importance of this road in the context of the capital's overall development

Do you think this stretch of Aleje Jerozolimskie has a unique character?

Oh yes, it's definitely a very special area because of what we might call its 'natural growth'. It started growing without zoning plans and you can see this from the shapes of the plots, which are not rectangular to the street but instead seem rather accidental because people just bought the land in relatively small parcels from farmers. With the Batory Building, for example, you can see that the plot is narrow, long and at a forty-degree angle to the street. Bigger plots also exist along the road, such as Reduta and Blue City and another next to Reduta, currently under development, is rectangular, but these are exceptions to the rule of the majority of buildings along this part of Jerozolimskie. On the whole, this area is natural: there were no planners - just the market.

Any other factors which mark it out?

The name Aleje Jerozolimskie is quite important as it is well known to a lot of people and the road is relatively close to the city centre and airport. There's also a lot of unexploited land so it's easy to develop there and the infrastructure is reasonably good. Originally, what supported growth along Jerozolimskie was that the real centre, around the Palace of Culture for example, hadn't been properly developed. People have also perceived it as an area without the centre's parking and traffic difficulties.

But several people cite the traffic as a big problem in this area.

It is but here are plans to extend the road. One day all the traffic problems will be solved but it will entail some investment.

What characterizes the buildings themselves along Aleje Jerozolimskie?

They were designed around the same time, so they are a reflection of the same marketing requirements. If we first look at Jerozolimskie Business Park, which consists of four buildings, A, B, C and D, the first three are identical, small buildings of something like 3,000 sqm of leasable space. [D itself totals 9,100 sqm]. Construction began on the first buildings around the mid-nineties and it's clear that then foreign investors considered Warsaw quite a risky place, because they decided to build on a small-scale to begin with. When they achieved very positive results, they decided to build more, though again on a small-scale. Again they were successful, so they constructed once more, meaning that after three trials, they'd build one big building. We can see from this how companies were beginning to trust Warsaw, from around 1995 to 2000.
The standard of office space in our projects is similar and in their technical specifications: that is floor height, suspended ceilings, finishing materials, air-conditioning and planning grids, they are practically identical.

So how do they compare to other buildings, those you weren't involved in designing?

Our buildings are certainly simpler. I would hope that we recognized the market demands perfectly. We didn't do too much guesswork or imagine what the market would be like in five years or so or what kinds of tenants there'd be in ten years. They were just exactly for people we knew, who were interested in the area's short distances to the airport and city centre and then after some time, the fact that it was a good neighbourhood and that there were some reputable companies already there.
When we started to design those buildings, they were something really new on the market, something that caused different reactions. Our buildings were different to the standard that then existed.

How was this?

All our buildings provided an environment for work. I'm not only talking about our buildings, it was part of a bigger process. Before in Warsaw you had the Marriott and Intraco 1 and Intraco 2 for example and a lot of flats, which were adapted or used for office purposes. What we proposed was an open area, empty space to divide, organize and to plan for the individual needs of the client, with all the facilities, like kitchens of course and restaurants and parking spaces, for instance. Everything you need in other words to concentrate on your work, in a friendly atmosphere. This approach was obviously different to before. The building wasn't to be a machine for work but something more human.

What do you think about the current developments on Aleje Jerozolimskie? Eurocentrum or Jerozolimskie Company House 2 for example? Do you think they or others represent a departure from what has previously existed there?

[Of Eurocentrum]. It's very nice this part of Jerozolimskie, which is a sort of connection between the city and our part of Jerozolimskie. I imagine it wasn't very easy to develop something on what is a very narrow strip of land between the road and the railway.

The design is quite different to your buildings on the road

Of course. What I meant is that it represents a connection between the centre, where there is a higher density of buildings and also taller buildings, and the part of Jerozolimskie where we have four to seven storey buildings. The density on Jerozolimskie is not that great because of the channel going through it, where there are shopping centres and parking areas. Eurocentrum is another type of development. Let's call it a connection between the centre and our part of Jerozolimskie.

How do you feel the non-CBD part of Jerozolimskie might be improved?

The traffic. That's the first thing. The second is planning zones. If that is improved we will lose our natural development but in terms of space planning or perception of the space I think it can be made better. Real borders for developers can be introduced and they can be supported with infrastructure and traffic solutions.

What sort of infrastructure?

It depends on the part of Jerozolimskie but next to Batory for example, there is a problem with sewage but there are no difficulties with electricity anywhere, to my knowledge. As for traffic, access for cars is one issue but then public transport is another.

It has been suggested that development in this part of the city could begin to rival the CBD.

There are a few areas, which are developing in Warsaw. Jerozolimskie is certainly one of them but we also have Mokotów, Wola and soon we will I hope have the vicinity of the airport. Jerozolimskie is already an important business centre but it won't become the centre of the city. We also need to keep in mind that Złote Tarasy is being developed in the area around the Palace of Culture.
Jerozolimskie does have some of the features of a city centre, such as shopping centres, so isn't only somewhere you stay between 9 and 5 o' clock, and leave when it's empty, dark and dead. But given that the real centre is now being developed, I don't think Jerozolimskie is a genuine competitor.