Looking architects in the eye

Adam Pykel, the president of the Port Praski company: A tenement building has already been completed on ul. Krowia, including 30 apartments and our office. A complex of four buildings including app. 70 apartments, which has been designed by the APA Wojciechowski studio, is under construction at the junction of ul. Okrzei and ul. Sierakowskiego. It is being constructed by Unibep. We are also waiting for the building permits for another two buildings on ul. Okrzei – next to the Kościuszko Infantry Division Memorial, which is to remain in its place. These have also been designed by APA Wojciechowski and will have app. 100 apartments. We are also holding a tender to choose the general contractor for this section of the development. A complex of neighbouring buildings with app. 300 apartments is also on the drawing boards of APA Wojciechowski. Another five buildings including app. 200 apartments are being designed by the Maciej Kuryłowicz Architekt studio and twelve more with app. 300 apartments, which have been designed by the Bimor studio, are waiting for a building permit. As soon as we receive this, we will select the contractor and start the construction process. This gives us over 1,000 apartments, which should be completed by 2017. Our plans also involve the reconstruction of a tenement on the corner of ul. Okrzei and ul. Sierakowskiego, which used to be a junior school. This will be connected with a new building by a glass dome creating an internal atrium and the conjoined buildings will function as a hotel. The historic part is in quite good shape and will not be demolished. We will also reconstruct one of the teaching rooms and create a mini-museum on a mezzanine.

This is not the entire project, though.

No it is not, but we have put the rest on hold until we receive a building permit for a flood protection structure, that is, for flood gates on the lock channel and lock gates to ensure a suit-able water level in the harbour. However, we are still stuck in the administrative procedures. When we receive the permit, we will start the design of the next stages of the development straight away. Three international competitions will be held, to which we will invite selected architects from Italy, across Europe and from over the ocean. I hope that this can take place before the end of this year. The entire scheme involves the construction of a multifunctional project including a residential area, two office towers, a hotel, a residential tower, a marina, a media and conference centre, a sports and rehabilitation facility, a private educational centre, a retail section with an area of 10,000–20,000 sqm next to the underground station, and a 100m viewing tower with restaurants. The project will eventually have an area of 1 mln sqm – one of the largest projects of its kind in Europe.

Property agents are sceptical about the office market in Praga. Are you not afraid that the buildings will not work?

They will change their minds when they visit us and see what Port Praski will actually be like. I believe that it will become the actual centre of Warsaw. Not everyone is aware that in some capital cities the life of the city has shifted when complexes like this have been built. One example is HafenCity in Hamburg, which was a revitalisation of 157 ha of post-industrial land in the port. For me, as for probably any engineer, the construction of such a giant project as Port Praski is a dream come true. Many people might become discouraged in my position, but I am not at all fazed by the project – I feel it in my bones. I got to know this area when I was six. My father brought me here and I know what the harbour looked like in its heyday. Then it fell into decline and now we need to breathe new life into it.

How do your partners feel about that?

I have long-term experience gained from working abroad and I try to implement the best methods in my professional practice. Up to a several dozen studios are entering our architectural competitions because everyone wants to work on the Port Praski project. However, in each competition there can only be one winner. At one stage two studios won together: APA Wojciechowski and Maciej Kuryłowicz Architekt. If there is a strong disagreement in the competition committee, I disregard my own vote and accept the will of the committee. In case of a joint victory, we set aside another plot to be designed on a single-source basis. So we have invited both studios and asked their representatives to agree with each other on which quarter they want to design. They have now made their choice. At the end of each competition I also invite back all the studios who participated in the tender procedure. I am not afraid to stand up and look architects in the eye, even though they sometimes ask me difficult questions. If some architect comes to me with another ‘dormitory district’ design for Warsaw and some more tenement buildings, I will have to say, sorry – this is not what this area is all about. In this way I show that I am not afraid to discuss each design. The Swedes have taught me that you must not bury your head in the sand – you have to say what you want to say. This forges the will to cooperate.