The market for institutional rental housing is growing faster and faster. Buildings of this type are increasingly being erected in locations that arouse considerable controversy. Matexi Polska has announced the construction of 300 apartments on a plot of land between Jerozolimskie Avenue and the Warsaw Central railroad line and the Warsaw Central train station. Is this the right place for residential development?
An attractive plot of land?
View of the Western Gate, the planned building will stand on the plot in front of the building.
photo: Panek / Wikimedia commons
Matexi Polska has purchased an attractive plot of land on the border of Ochota and Śródmieście, in Jerozolimskie Avenue in Warsaw. It will build a building on it that will accommodate about 300 units of varying square meters. The building is to include apartments for sale and rent. The building will most likely stand at 86/88 Jerozolimskie Avenue, next to the Brama Zachodnia office building. This part of Jerozolimskie Avenue is dominated by this type of development. A strip of large office "closets" stretches between Zawiszy Square and Warsaw Zachodnia . No wonder - behind them is a railroad area with very intense traffic. This is the main passenger route cutting through Warsaw.
A narrow strip of land
photo: Panek / Wikimedia commons
At its widest point, the plot of land on which the developer intends to erect apartments is 25 meters wide. According to the Railway Transport Law, buildings cannot be erected closer than 20 meters from the axis of the track. In the case of residential buildings, this distance should be greater, so as to ensure adequate acoustic conditions. The acoustic comfort of a plot of land located between a busy thoroughfare and a railroad station seems debatable, but without proper measurements it is impossible to determine whether standards are actually exceeded here.
acoustics
Railroad noise map and fragment of the Study
photo: Warsaw City Hall
However, the acoustic maps of Warsaw available on the city's website give an indication that it will be difficult to meet the requirements for residential buildings in this type of location. What's more, according to the current Study, an overpass connecting Ochota and Wola by road is yet to run in the vicinity of the plot, which will further increase the noise and elevate it several meters higher.
probing the possibilities
Fragments of the issued WZ decision
photo: UM Warszawa / skyscrapercity
Will the developer even succeed in locating the building at this site? The 25-meter-wide plot is only 8 meters from the axis of the extreme track. Taking into account the provisions of the Railway Transport Law, only about 15 meters of land will be available to the architects. The plot also has a zoning decision issued for a hotel development, which may also indicate apartments for rent. The new investor will probably start the procedure from scratch, but the development possibilities of the plot have been probed for a long time.
