Shredded into four parts, the unique street will finally turn into a linear park. There will be more greenery on Koscielna Street in Poznań , two ponds will return, and recreation areas for people of all ages will be created. The ponds and underground reservoirs will form a small retention system. There will also be some calming of car traffic. The change will cover the larger and most important part of the street, but - unfortunately - not the whole thing.
To have such a treasure and not use it - is a waste. So it's a wonder that only now are positive changes beginning on Koscielna Street in Poznan. This is a unique street in the scale of the city. It has the form of an elongated square or irregular avenue, because it has preserved the seven-century-old spindly shape of the oval village of Jeżyce. This one - incorporated into the city in 1900 - gave rise to the now fashionable district of the same name. In the 20th century Koscielna Street quickly ceased to be a district center, with the homesteads of Bamberg settlers gradually disappearing from it, giving way to factories and industrial plants. Only a quarter of a century ago, the few tenement houses here began to be supplemented with new buildings. Today, after an intense onslaught of developers, the street already has a typically urban character.
Koscielna Street in Poznan - eastern roadway, on the left buildings from the last two decades and one pre-WWI tenement house, on the right "green spindle"
photo: Jakub Głaz
The middle of the "spindle" of Kościelna Street, between the two roadways, is in turn a vast space with potential for a linear park. With potential, because, yes, much of this space is green, but the whole was, until this spring, shredded into four enclaves: a green space with benches, a gas station, a fenced parking lot and a green dog run. The individual lots were even given separate names five years ago (squares: Maria Paradowska and Halina Szwarc).
Koscielna Street in Poznań - the project concerns the space between the roadways on the section from Wąska Street to the railroad viaduct; on the left - new developer investments on the site of former industrial and food plants,
source: openstreetmap.org
consistent but fractured
The gas station has already been demolished. The parking lot has been closed. These are preparations for a change that has been postulated for at least 11 years (an open-air discussion about the future of the street was arranged on Koscielna Street by the Open initiative in 2013).
Koscielna Street in Poznan - a gas station and a section of a parking lot, as of March 2023 (now defunct)
Photo: Jakub Głaz
The road to the realization project was long. Ad hoc commissioned unsuccessful concepts were created, student competitions were held, but - all in vain - as we wrote about in more detail last spring[see: The city's unique space and tendered design. What could go wrong?]. At that time a tender was announced to select the designer of the changes (unfortunately - not a competition). It became a year ago the Poznan studio Bułat Architekci (whose recent credits include the reconstruction of: the Lazarski Market in Poznan and the Wybrzeze Theater in Gdansk).
Koscielna Street in Poznań - the space left by the parking lot as seen from the western sidewalk; on this side the roadway will be narrowed to one lane and a bicycle path
Photo: Jakub Głaz
We have now learned about the approved project for the transformation of Koscielna Street, or more precisely, its carriageway-limited "interior" descending from Wąska Street towards the viaduct leading towards the residential neighborhood of Sołacz and the park there. Unfortunately, the City did not include in the study area the upper, asphalt-flooded section of the street, that is, the connector of the former oval with Dąbrowskiego Street - the main route of Jeżyce. The green passageway will continue to break off a few hundred meters from the most important square of the district - the Jeżycki market.
Koscielna Street in Poznan - view from the southern end of the "spindle" towards the district center, in the background the "fillings" from 7 and 8 years ago at the intersection of Koscielna and Poznanska streets, on the left - the inlet of Wąska Street
Photo: Jakub Głaz
What should Koscielna Street look like after the changes? First of all, it will be consistent: it will be possible to walk down the middle along the entire length of the avenue. However, it will not be a "boring", monotonous route. A division into zones with different functions and forms, intended for all age groups , has been planned. The designers decided to make optimal use of what they considered to be the main assets of the street:
hilly terrain and developed and lush greenery [...] with high landscape values, creatinga natural habitat for animals.
Church Street in Poznań, development project, proj. Bułat Architekci
© proj.: Bułat Architekci
clearing instead of fuel
The areas after the parking lot and gas station will undergo the biggest revolution. The first will become an open "natural clearing" provided for sports and active recreation. The second - a paved circular square, where, for example, a catering pavilion is to stand seasonally (the local development plan does not allow any permanent form to be set up).
Koscielna Street in Poznan, development project, proj. Bułat Architekci - visualization, view of the integration part in place of the former parking lot (above the planned underground storage tank), left: square after the gas station, view from the west
© proj.: Bułat Architekci
Significant changes also await the green sections of Koscielna Street. In the central part of the "spindle" two picturesque retention and infiltration ponds will be created, connected by a meandering watercourse in "plant passages." This is a reference to the ponds on the river named Seganka, which existed here until the 19th century ( a mill stood by one of them ).
Church Street in Poznań, development project, proj. Bułat Architekci - visualization, view from the north from above the junction of Jeżycka and Św. Wawrzyńca Streets
© proj.: Bułat Architekci
At the same time, it is part of a small retention system, which is a significant part of the project coordinated by a subsidiary of Poznan's waterworks company Aquanet Retention. There will be two large reservoirs underground (the first with a separator and pumping station, and the second, the final one, with an emergency overflow to the sewer system). They will collect excess rainwater delivered by a new collector from the roofs, streets and squares of the dense development estates that are growing rapidly on the western side of Koscielna Street (the so-called New Jeżyce). The water is to be filtered in ponds and a sedimentation tank partly used to water the area. The rest, unfortunately, is to flow straight into storm drains for the time being . The Seganka River, running today through an underground sewer, will not be included in this new system.
Koscielna Street in Poznan, development project, designed by Bułat Architekci - visualization of the central part, on the left - a square in the place of the former gas station intended for a temporary seasonal pavilion, on the right - retention ponds
© proj.: Bułat Architekci
The ponds, designed in the middle, will change the existing layout of pedestrian routes. The central asphalt path will be replaced by two side paths, softly guided with a mineral surface. Benches will be placed along them every 50 meters, and bike racks and other necessary infrastructure are planned. Michal Bulat, who is responsible for the project, announces:
Benches, lamps and other elements of small architecture will be selected in accordance with the urban catalog for our city. We have carefully thought about lighting. In order not to litter the space with light and not to harm birds and insects, the lanterns will be dimmed for the night, and the light will change to a warmer color.
Koscielna Street in Poznan - the southern end of the space between the roadways, today a place to walk dogs
Photo: Jakub Głaz
truncated roadways
The outermost parts of the "spindle" will also change. In the southern part, which today serves mainly as a dog run , there will be a natural playground and a flower meadow. There is also room for a sculptural form - a kind of "gate" marking the beginning of the former village from the side of today's district center. A World War II-era shelter and the entrances leading to it will also be preserved. In the northern part just in front of the viaduct, a flower meadow will also be created. In turn, a rest area with seating , which exists today in a hulking form, will grow over the "underground lovers' shelter" located here .
Koscielna Street in Poznan - the intersection of the green "spindle" with the busy connector of Jeżycka Street (left behind the frame) and St. Wawrzyniec Street (right behind the frame)
photo: Jakub Głaz
The latter end of the "spindle" is today cut off by a roadway - a connector of Jeżycka and św. Wawrzyńca streets. Despite the efforts of designers, passage through this section will still be possible (decision of the City Traffic Engineer), but its character will change. Instead of an asphalt spatial "breach" there will be an elevated roadway with traffic calming, which can be turned off during larger events or picnics. Instead, the architects have succeeded in widening the green spindle. Michal Bulat reports that
We convinced the decision-makers to narrow the western roadway from two to one lane and build a bike path. At the expense of the scaled-down roadway, we also managed to enlarge the southern end at the junction with Narrow Street.
Two lanes will remain on the east side instead. A bus lane must be preserved here, because traffic jams always form in front of the narrow overpass (with shuttle traffic!). Instead, the parking spaces between the roadway and the green "spindle" will disappear.
Koscielna Street in Poznan - the recreational part on the north side, on the left - the "Bamberski Dwór" residential development from the late 1990s.
photo: Jakub Głaz
Bulat also reports that
there are currently more than 100 trees and numerous shrubs on the project site. The cuttings include four trees interfering with the new layout of the development, while 12 more have been selected for cutting due to, among other things, their poor condition or location in the immediate vicinity of the wall scheduled for demolition. The project envisages planting 27 new trees - both solitaries and in the form of supplementing the existing row of trees emphasizing the shape of the oval, as well as supplementing low greenery.
About the low greenery, the designers write as follows:
The color of perennials and ornamental grasses, their flowering season, habit, change of foliage, great variety in terms of height will make the greenery composition very dynamic and changeable, which makes it attractive throughout the year. In addition, the choice of perennials and grasses in the composition of greenery is justified by the fact that this is a group of plants that promote biodiversity.
Koscielna Street in Poznan - one of the WWII shelters, view from the east
photo: Jakub Głaz
In addition, according to the designers, all elements of the development will be made
in accordance with the principles of universal design with particular attention to accessibility allowing all designed elements to be used on an equal basis with others.
not so fast
When can implementation be expected? The exact dates are not yet known. It is known that in the autumn the City will apply for money in the competition of the Wielkopolska Marshal's Office. If it receives them, then - after the efficient selection of a contractor - the work could begin next autumn. So we will see the effect no sooner than two years from now.
Church Street in Poznań - the southern, upper section of the street, which will not be rebuilt and greened, visible St. Florian Church, view from the north
photo: Jakub Głaz
It would be good if, by then, the upper, amorphous part of the street mentioned at the beginning with the scaled-down traffic system could be included in the redevelopment area. This wide space, with St. Florian's Church towering over it, also has considerable urban potential and should form a whole with the green "spindle . "
