By a decision of city councilors in Gdansk, the position of City Planner has been created. However, it will not be a person chosen in a competition, who could bring a completely new perspective to urban planning, but the director of the Gdansk Development Bureau. The position is currently held by Edyta Damszel-Turek, who has been with the BRG for 24 years.
Since September, Gliwice has had a city planner. She was appointed Agata Twardoch, an architect and professor at the Silesian University of Technology. Today the position of City Planner was also created in Gdansk, although unlike in Gliwice, in the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship the position was not filled through a competition. This is because it was agreed that the newly created position would be held by the director of the Gdansk Development Bureau (BRG), currently: Edyta Damszel-Turek.
The city emphasizes that the City Architect, City Surveyor and City Geologist have been in place in Gdansk for several years. By the decision of the councilors - who unanimously supported the change during the September 26 City Council session - the City Urban Planner joins them. The function will be assigned to the position of director of the Gdansk Development Bureau and will not result in any organizational changes at BRG.
BRG director is henceforth also the City Urban Planner
Gdansk has had the position of City Architect for three years. There was no position of City Urban Planner until now, the function of which is de facto held by the director of the Gdansk Development Bureau, Edyta Damszel-Turek , emphasizes Emilia Lodzinska, deputy mayor of Gdansk for spatial development and housing. - It is under her supervision that extensive work is being carried out on the general plan of the city of Gdansk. This work is closely related to urban planning and requires appropriate high qualifications.
The deputy mayor adds that already today the director of the office is the general designer of all studies, including planning studies prepared in BRG. The establishment of the function of City Planner "is therefore a recognition of the state of affairs and an image enhancement of both Gdansk and the BRG director's position itself."
Unofficially in the city, it is said that since 2021. The city created the position of City Architect ( Prof. Piotr Lorens - who is affiliated with Gdansk University of Technology and holds a postdoctoral degree in urban planning and city planning), there has been no shortage of friction between BRG and the Office of the City Architect. There is speculation that the decision is intended to strengthen the position of the BRG director.
Edyta Damszel-Turek, Urban Planner of the City of Gdansk
According to city records, the director of the Gdansk Development Bureau is the general designer of city policies regarding the spatial vision of the city's development and all urban studies created in Gdansk, including local plans, the Study of Conditions and Directions for Spatial Development and the General Plan of the City of Gdansk, which is currently under development.
Edyta Damszel-Turek took over the director's post in September 2015, after 15 years at BRG. She is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Gdansk University of Technology, as well as the postgraduate study of Urban Planning and Spatial Management "Space Design and Management."
