Edible City
For more articles on similar topics, see A&B issue 01/2024 - EATABLE CITY,
from which we publish the article below. Download free e-publications of A&B and read more.
When in 2014 I interviewed then-Szczecin city architect Jaroslaw Bondar for Architecture & Business magazine about the possible directions of the city's development and its future, many of the topics we discussed at the time seemed distant, and, I make no secret, quite abstract. I never imagined that at the end of last year's holiday stay in my hometown I would be at the official opening of one of the main urban axes of Szczecin, the thorough transformation of which had been one of the priorities of the city authorities for years. And that the architect himself, so involved in this and many other projects changing the face of the city - will not live to see this opening.
The city authorities began to think about the new arrangement and urban use of Wojska Polskiego Avenue - because that's what they were talking about - in the aforementioned 2014. The generally outlined plan of action of the then city architect was as follows:
in the current 2014-2020 perspective, we want to implement a revitalization project, the starting point of which will be public space - the street. We will focus on public space historically shaped and fundamental to Szczecin. The street becomes the key and starting point. Starting from it, we enter the interiors of the quarters. We will try to think both about the residents of the buildings located there, as well as the residents of the city as a whole. This project is entering the programming and public consultation phase. It concerns residents, owners and users of apartments and premises on Wojska Polskiego Street, between Zwycięstwa Square (Port Gate) and Szarych Szeregów Square - an arterial street central to the 19th century city. It is hoped that the revitalization of this section will generate traffic and life to the neighboring streets [cf. A&B 09/2014].
The new face of the section between Zwycięstwa Square and Plac Zgody - the distance between the opposite buildings allowed the creation of a green area modern in form
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
genesis
The nearly seven-kilometer-long avenue in its original form was, of course, laid out and realized by the German authorities. It was named Falkenwalder Straße, or Tanowska Street. The current Wojska Polskiego Avenue is made up of several sections that are quite different in character, but due to its equal width and unambiguous, almost axial course of the street, it undoubtedly forms a coherent whole in the area of the center's quarters. The avenue has its beginning at Zwycięstwa Square and, running in a northwesterly direction, crosses consecutively through Zgody Square, Jagiellońska Street and reaches Szarych Szeregów Square. It is here that a fundamental change in the character of the street takes place, as walking from the strict city center, we reach the beginning of the so-called Szczecin Westend. This is a space inspired by the prestigious districts of Berlin, London and Frankfurt, with decidedly looser and more grandiose buildings.
The new face of the section between Zwycięstwa Square and Plac Zgody - the distance between the opposite buildings allowed the creation of a green area modern in form
© Szczecin City Investments
Moving away from the downtown quarters, Wojska Polskiego Street, outlined on a gently descending terrain, leads towards the Pogodno estate and the much farther wooded estate (and lake) of Głębokie. The change in width is not insignificant: a wide tramway track weaves in between the two two-lane roadways, while beautiful tall old greenery can be found on the sidewalks. These are mainly oaks, lindens, chestnut trees and plane trees, planted while the city's "previous landlords" were still in power. On the former Westend, among the aforementioned splendid trees there was a place for many stately villas and palaces, decorated with rich details. Currently, more than a dozen of them are listed in the register of monuments. Here a small "tourist" digression - I highly encourage you to visit the Lentz villa, built in 1888-1889. The building, designed by architect Max Drechsler, was restored at great expense and with great care. It is worth seeing both the building itself and the stunningly detailed interiors, where cultural events are regularly held.
The section between Plac Zgody and the traffic circle of Plac Szarych Szeregów, visible in the distance, before reconstruction
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
2014-
But let's go back to 2014. Then, in October, part of the eighth edition of the Westival of Architecture, organized under the all-too-familiar slogan "City - a public thing," was devoted to discussions and workshops on the future of Wojska Polskiego Avenue, its expected function and diagnosis of problems. The main moderators and initiators of the discussions and workshops were: the then vice-president of Szczecin Piotr Mync and the aforementioned city architect Jarosław Bondar.
The City Council's next step was to commission the drawing of twelve preliminary conceptual variants, created on the basis of a previously conducted traffic survey and analysis of the entire area covered by the project, i.e. the aforementioned downtown section lying between Zwycięstwa and Szarych Szeregów squares. The resulting proposals were presented to residents as part of extensive public consultations. Szczecinians who were not directly surveyed were able to express their opinions during numerous open meetings or workshops. The consequence of the discussions was the reduction of the number of proposed variants from twelve to six, and finally to four. The latter were subjected to sociological and survey research and consulted with neighborhood councils.
The mineral surface of Consent Square as seen before reconstruction
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
The result of the meetings, research and analysis was the selection of a single concept, theone that best meets the needs of the people of Szczecin and gives the area a new chance to restore the qualities lost as a result of the depopulation of the downtown area and the slow but incessant agony of its service zone. It is worth mentioning here that one of the longer considered urban planning hypotheses was the restoration of the avenue's axial streetcar line - during the demolition work of the existing pavement, it was even possible to reach the tracks remembering the pre-war times. In the end, however, this concept was abandoned, and the unearthed fragment of the already historic trackbed was exposed and marked with a stop pole similar to the former ones. Its location and form is the work of the City's Historic Preservationist, Michal Dębowski.
One of the initial stages of the entire investment process of the avenue reconstruction - view after the removal of the previously existing street and sidewalk surfaces
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
2017-
In November 2017, the realization competition for the development of public spaces of Wojska Polskiego Avenue, announced by the City Hall six months earlier, was resolved. The winner was Pracownia Projektowa ARCHAID Pracownia Projektowa Jacek Szewczyk Jacek Szewczyk. The MTM construction and road company became the contractor, while the realization was supervised by Szczecińskie Inwestycje Miejskie. The entire investment was divided into two stages. The first included reconstruction of the road system of the avenue from Zwycięstwa Square to Szarych Szeregów Square, a section of Jagiellońska Street from Piastów Avenue to Wojska Polskiego Street, and a large section of Śląska Street. The second stage was the creation of project documentation and implementation of the reconstruction of the road and track system in the area of Zwycięstwa Square. The handover of part of the project documentation, cost estimate, works estimate, technical specifications of execution and acceptance of the first works took place already in 2019.
Delineation of the new width and course of the traffic network system - view towards Zwycięstwa Square
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
It is worth mentioning here that thanks to the proposed solutions and consultations carried out, the project received a grant in the ministerial competition under the "Model Urban Revitalization" program. The grant, worth a total of PLN 43.7 million, was distributed among the twenty best-rated assumptions. Wojska Polskiego Avenue was ranked tenth in the competition, which provided it with nearly PLN 4 million in funding. Currently, the City Council reports that the total cost of reconstructing the downtown section of Wojska Polskiego is more than PLN 43 million gross.
The new lanes are made of large granite pavers
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
working together as a team
How has the city government's vision, created in cooperation with residents, changed the area? Most striking is the new layout of the traffic zone. One of the priorities of the project is to once again attract shoppers, strollers, visitors, eaters here, in other words, simply to restore the former function of this place, lost as a result of political and lifestyle changes (read: the emergence of three large shopping malls in the city center).
To this end, the former "throughway," or four lanes of traffic, was replaced by two one-way roadways made of paving stones. A zone of calm traffic and non-emission public transportation was designated here. What is extremely important in our climate and with still strong and, to be fair, not very ecological habits, a lot of slanted parking spaces were placed on the central axis of the roadway. Densely planted new tall greenery also found its place there, about which more later.
Protecting the old, existing greenery was one of the priorities of the city authorities.
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
The ability to get to and leave your car (a total of 173 parking spaces, including 6 for electric vehicles and 9 for cars of people with disabilities) gives hope of avoiding the mistake of the earlier reconstruction of nearby Krzywoustego Street. There, heavily widened sidewalks and the addition of a fair amount of greenery proved insufficient to attract back pedestrians and visitors. The street is still driven as fast as it was before it was reconstructed, while the complete elimination of parking spaces prevents private cars from accessing it. Despite the undoubted positive changes, the space is still little used, and the service first floors shine empty.
Protecting the old, existing greenery was one of the priorities of the city authorities
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
anti-concrete
"Physical" reconstruction of the avenue means not only significant changes in the traffic area. I have already mentioned the planting of tall greenery along the axis of the street - 154 (!) new trees were planted , including plane trees about 10 meters high, magnolias and birches. Both the choice of species - continuing pre-war traditions, the number and quality of these tall plantings are pleasing. This is a concrete response to concretosis or climate warming, not empty promises and filled-in tables of statistics, the effects of which I see every day in Paris [cf. A&B 4/2023]. In addition to the tall greenery, nearly 20,000 shrubs were planted, mainly barberries, derenes, irises, and taffy. Another nod to Szczecin's tradition are the numerous pots with single, dewy magnolia seedlings. When fully completed, these pots, finished with seating made from an exotic, water-resistant species of wood, are likely to really attract and hold passersby.
The section between Zgody Square and Jagiellońska Street - the existing tall greenery visible on the right, protected during the works, is now complemented by new plantings
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
Trees and shrubs have an automatic irrigation system installed. In addition, watering [...] uses so-called piddlers, which are special membranes for irrigation and aeration that wrap around the root ball of the tree. The planting sites were also properly prepared. A structural substrate was used, i.e. successively laid layers of natural aggregate of different fractions, formed from crushing rocks. Mixed into the substrate was a substrate, selected for the designed tree species, which includes charcoal, slow-release fertilizer, as well as mycorrhizal inoculations or probiotics. Its advantage is the elimination of soil sealing and sealing, which facilitates the vertical flow of rainwater or water fed from the irrigation system. At the construction stage, a decision was made to apply this type of substrate not only pointwise within the trees, but throughout the planting strip of plane trees. Structural substrate was also applied under the entire greenery, within which rows of birch trees of the multi-stem variety were planted. In addition, in selected areas of the avenue in the greenery area there will be a mineral pavement, the characteristic of which is the permeability of rainwater, which can feed the greenery. Trees along the avenue were also included in the work. Cultivation pruning, a basic procedure to improve the quality and value of trees, was carried out. Their crowns were newly formed. Directly under the existing trees, under which cars were parked before the reconstruction, paved surfaces were removed and greenery was made. Importantly, all the greenery within the project area was under constant supervision and care included, among other things, fertilization or spraying with preparations to improve resistance. In addition, for a period of 3 years from the completion of the investment, the Contractor is obliged to care for the plantings of trees and shrubs made, and to replace them if they do not take
- explain representatives of the City Council.
recycled paving
Another design decision that is gratifying is the use of 800 tons of recycled stone paving blocks from the demolition of the old pavement. Hidden beneath layers of existing asphalt, the pavement was mechanically treated before being re-laid - the top surface was cut and leveled, and the pavement was flamed to provide a new anti-slip surface.
both the preserved and new greenery harmoniously fits into the space, which is full of contrasts - the new spatial arrangement and the prioritization of pedestrians are intended to revitalize this part of the city
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
It is worth mentioning two more "intangible" and extremely positive aspects regarding the organization of the newly opened street. The first is the fact that a specific framework for the future development of food gardens has been worked out - in consultation with the city's Office of Spatial Planning, the Department of Architecture and Construction and the Conservator of Monuments. All cubic objects or other types of obscuring the front facades of existing buildings will be prohibited. The locations of the gardens are to be non-interfering with the use of public street furniture and infrastructure. The alley area has been divided into three differentiated zones, where aesthetics will apply depending on the composition of the pavement and the cross-section of the alley. This gives hope of avoiding later aesthetic chaos and a flurry of inconsistent and mostly flimsy "beautification" or arbitrariness in these spaces. Searching the Internet, I did not find visualizations of the proposed solutions, so I keep my fingers crossed for their future appearance.
Creating a playground in such a strict city center would seem to be a rather breakneck assumption... and in the meantime, the new development of the Agreement Square attracts the youngest even during bad weather!
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
curation of the city's green living room
The second positive aspect is that the newly opened avenue has its own manager and, not insignificantly, she performs her function socially. She is Dr. Dorota Kowalewska, a Szczecin resident, a graduate of the local Department of Political Science and postgraduate studies in Europrojects - management of EU-funded projects. On the website designed to help coordinate and manage the new space in the future, www.slynnaaleja.pl, there is little information so far, but in the tab dedicated to the manager one can read a few important sentences. Ms. Kovalevskaya writes:
I have the pleasure of ensuring that its residents - residents and businesses - feel that the famous avenue in its new guise is becoming the green living room of the city, a representative place in Szczecin. Neighborhood animation, support for entrepreneurs, branding, integration of activities around the avenue - this is what I will be doing for the near future.
A clear, bright program without insinuations and unnecessary embellishments - bravo and.... I keep my fingers crossed!
spoonful of tar
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a few more things - so far there have been only superlatives, it's time for some criticism. Since I live far away, I can't walk down the avenue right now, unfortunately. However, I was at its official opening on the last weekend of August and a little later, after a month and a half break, in mid-October. And while at the opening it was possible to turn a blind eye to the large, temporarily patched with sand cavities in the newly laid sidewalks, to the paving stones lying loose, to the already crumbling butstill unfinished with the aforementioned wooden seats, the concrete Ls surrounding the magnolia pots - the exact same sights and defects were very glaring six weeks later. Yes, it was known that due to additional works and architectural details not included in the original design, the acceptance of the work would not take place until mid-November, but this should not preclude a harmonious schedule of intervention by the necessary teams and - simply - keeping the area in perfect order.
It also seems a bit artificial to me, for the time being, to furnish the newly donated urban space with abstractly placed benches and other elements of small architecture - it's a bit like furnishing interiors "on a piecework basis." I think that, as in the case of furnishing apartments, here it simply takes time and "annexation" of this very fresh urban space by its future users.
new edition of the old fountain known as Szczecin's weeping wall
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
It is also a pity about two "design" issues that have been lost. The first is the development of a small square adjacent to Wojska Polskiego Avenue, created by the intersection of Królowej Jadwigi and Piotra Ściegiennego Streets. Since the late 1970s, this space was dominated by a fountain known as Szczecin's wall of weeping. It was a highly debatable in form mosaic wall with funnels of various lengths, from which water flowed into an oval, organically outlined pool - a wading pool. Designed by one of the most distinctive figures in Szczecin architecture, namely Zbigniew Abrahamowicz, with mosaics by Piotr Wieczorek, it aroused extreme emotions: from hatred to adoration. Instead of restoring this true downtown landmark, the City decided to demolish it in 2001, replacing it with a mediocre fountain that didn't even last a decade. Subsequently, the square, which once continuously attracted bristling residents, completely died out, empty and paved over. After revitalization, the fountain function is returning to the place - still held in sentiment by residents - which in itself is positive. However, watching the minimalist, metal structure resembling water curtains, I greatly regret that the City did not decide to announce (in consultation with the Chamber, SARP?) a separate competition for the development of this place. Perhaps it would have been a repeat opportunity to create a unique space, instead of the laconic, anonymous design it received.
The second missed opportunity seems to be the decision not to create dedicated lanes for cyclists, but to throw all vehicular traffic onto a single roadway. It is true that traffic is calmed here, but this assumption smacks of the mouse - this type of solution was promoted in Paris almost two decades ago - and yet the new traffic arrangement of the area could have been an impulse toto design the heart of a well-thought-out, coherent network of separate bicycle lanes in the center that do not interfere with car traffic, as can be seen in nearby Berlin.
Wojska Polskiego Avenue in Szczecin - Zgody Square visible from a bird's-eye view; the traffic circle, which until now had only been traversed by cars, has been completely given over to pedestrians; next to the playground it isalso the shortest passage between the first pedestrian zone in Szczecin - Deptak Bogusława with Gryf visible in the floor layout and Wojska Polskiego Avenue.
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
wind of change, or a city for the people
Both living in Paris and regularly returning to Szczecin ("Paris of the north," although now I say that with a bit of irony), I observe what a great transformation in thinking about urban space both professionals - architects, urban planners - and residents themselves have undergone. So recent seem the extremely heated disputes in Szczecin after the decision to exclude one block in the center of Bogusława Street from road traffic and turn it into a pedestrian-only zone (late 1990s). For a really large part of the community this was an unacceptable decision. Another discussion, although no longer so heated, was triggered in 2014 by the decision, made after public consultations, to reduce the carriageway traffic (and change it to a one-way street) of one of the main arteries of Szczecin, Jagiellońska Street.
In addition to numerous plantings of tall greenery, ornamental low greenery was also placed in many places; here visible within the gastronomic garden
© Szczecin Municipal Investments
Will the city accept and "absorb" Wojska Polskiego Avenue as its own? Let's hope so, because the newly arranged space is worth it. In Paris, limiting car traffic in favor of public transportation, pedestrian zones or bicycle paths is already basically a "trademark" of the mayor Anne Hidalgo, who holds her second term. And although often pushed even by force or annoying by lack of broader perspective or resulting in chaos, the direction of these changes at a time of such rapid global warming is apt and unquestionable. In Szczecin, reducing car traffic, changing thinking on the subject is going in the right direction, although certainly much slower, of course, the scale of the city is also smaller. For this, the local authorities incomparably more than in the French capital take care of greenery - the planting of avenues, numerous new trees or green areas in other areas are pleasing and fill with optimism.
I began the text by mentioning a conversation with Jaroslaw Bondar, and I would also like to mention him a few words at the end. An architect with incredible passion and professional commitment, a lecturer, he served as city architect since 2014; he died suddenly in June 2021. Since then, the position of city architect has remained vacant, which is not good for Szczecin. His tenure has often caused me a sense of some frustration, I think I expected faster, perhaps more decisive or spectacular actions from a professional of this format. But now I can see that it was largely thanks to his decisions that Szczecin avoided many urban mistakes at that stage of development. The project to transform Wojska Polskiego Avenue was very important to him.
An architect is a difficult profession, but, like other professions dealing with the arts, he has a chance to rub shoulders with immortality through his achievements. Today's appearance of the new avenues, one of Jarek's greatest professional endeavors and challenges, will remain with us for a long time.
