On the waterfront

As late as 1910, Gdynia itself was nothing more than a fishing village with barely 900 inhabitants, but following Polish independence the decision was taken by the new government to build a major seaport, which had grown by 1938 to become the biggest seaport on the Baltic. The city that emerged from such humble beginnings was distinctive for its modernist architecture, but what followed was the Second World War and decades of neglect under communist rule. When this came to an end, the redevelopment of the dock area of the city could begin. In the decades that followed the end of communism, as the city began to grow again, the Sea Towers mixed-use skyscraper (completed in 2009) was added to the seafront – but a gap remained between these new buildings and the traditional development in the older part of the city. Fixing a hole where the sea used to be The 2 ha site of Gdynia Waterfront, which lies between ul. Hryniewickiego, ul. Waszyngtona and Skwer Kościuszki and that faces o