Preliminary concepts for the development of the boulevards under the slogan "Vistula connects" were released on the Facebook profile of the Urban Greenery Board on Friday . The visualizations depict parts of the Inflanta Boulevard, where interventionist tree cutting was recently applied. The initial visualizations of the project were meant to reassure residents that the felled trees would be replaced with new plantings. However, a discussion heated up under the post, with participants expressing many more concerns than just the condition of the trees.
Boulevards are a river topic. Every city that has them sooner or later has to face their development. They can become a center of recreation for residents, be a place of small commerce, an important traffic route. Treating a river as more than just an empty space in a city offers great opportunities to show off. We know of numerous examples from around the world of how turning a city "front" to the river made it possible to revitalize entire neighborhoods and positively affect the image of the city. Will this also happen in Krakow?
various concerns
This question has certainly been asked by many people in Krakow since last Friday. Preliminary concepts have caused a lively discussion under the post. And, as it happens in the city, different interests clash in it. Some people raise the financial issues of such a measure, especially in light of the pandemic and the economic crisis it is deepening. Many discussants also point out that old, perennial trees will be replaced by new ones with a smaller leaf mass. There are also critical voices that note that the changes to the boulevards will result in the elimination of parking spaces.
no contest
But perhaps the most pressing question is that of design. Will it be a project prepared by ZZM officials? Such a practice, although it has been used in Krakow for a long time, is not commendable. The position of the Cracow SARP is clear on this issue and has been articulated many times before. As Marek Kaszynski, president of SARP Krakow Branch, says:
The most important spaces in the city should be designed based on open competition procedures. Tender formulas or design by municipal entities are actions with a huge loss for the quality of these places.
He adds:
It is with extreme regret that I observe that, while there is an understanding of the competition procedure for cubic objects, the most important spaces between buildings are designed without this mechanism. Suffice it to mention the park on Karmelicka Street, where SARP took a stand against the bidding procedure, St. Spirit Square - one of the six most important squares in the Downtown, also implemented without a competition, or the results of the tender for the New Square, announced last week, where there was, after all, a competition that was not taken into account. The spaces between the buildings, are as important as the buildings, so they deserve the same procedures that allow the selection of the best concept from dozens or dozens of projects. The competition creates an opportunity to bring out the potential of the place and thus opens up new possibilities for Krakow: spatial, image and marketing.
best of known procedures
Urszula Forczek-Brataniec, secretary general of IFLA Europe and member of SAK, expresses similar concerns:
Green areas and public spaces have as high a rank as public buildings, and the same procedures should be applied to them. These areas are the showcase of a city, they form its landscape are also important places for staying and recreation, and many times more people use such spaces than buildings. For this and many other reasons, they deserve the best design solutions. Krakow has many areas of very high importance in its area - Wawel Castle, Market Square, Old Town, but also green areas of public space, such as parks and boulevards, among others. Toward them, as in the case of buildings located in the city space, an appropriate procedure should be applied. Of all procedures, the competition works best when we are looking for the best solution with high functional and formal qualities. This is an open and public formula, addressed to professionals, allowing us to choose the best solution, We have very good examples of the effectiveness of this type of approach from Poland: Warsaw, Toruń, Szczecin Gdańsk, but also Starachowice or Olsztyn have long used this procedure for important public green areas. It should also be emphasized that a competition preceded by well-executed public consultations has a chance to respond to the needs and expectations of residents. Functional guidelines, collected and analyzed in such a process, form the basis of a design team consisting of architects, landscape architects and other specialists depending on the scope. What the residents want is then solved and framed with the appropriate form, and in the competition procedure it is possible to choose the best solution. This avoids misguided decisions, passing by the real needs. A properly conducted competition, protecting copyrights, moreover, makes it possible to implement the whole thing coherently, from the execution of the construction project to construction.
ZZM has not yet published the final designs for the development of the boulevards. The visualizations shown on Facebook are only preliminary concepts. But can we expect a different mode than the project prepared internally?
