time of contrasts
The 1990s is also a time of great contrasts. Both very high quality infill buildings exceeding not only the Poznań average and realizations verging on the grotesque were created. The former include the superstructure of a tenement house on 27 Grudnia Street [designed by Studio ADS] and a small infill on Kramarska Street right next to the Old Market [designed by Paweł Handschuh]. At the other extreme is the colorful and rather childish addition to the Śródka district [proj.: Klimaszewska&Biedak] - a work that even its co-author assesses very critically today [the revitalization of Śródka, additions to its fabric and the revitalization of other districts will be devoted to one of the upcoming texts about Poznań in the series "City on target"].
The beginning of the century brings to Poznan an architectural firework in the form of the Old Brewery [designed by Studio ADS], which fills the southern end of downtown and the frontage of Półwiejska Street with brick facades. This high-end variation on historic architecture returns honor to brick, which by the 1990s is judged by some to be an unwelcome reference to Prussian heritage. However, it is not brick that sets the tone for the new seals. Stone and steel are coming to the fore, as well as simpler, though still varied facades with a more contemporary form (seals on Ogrodowa and Półwiejska Streets from the Arcada studio). But, almost at the same time, another addition to 27 Grudnia Street is being built. An office building with a pseudo-historic facade straight out of Las Vegas, with an exaggerated gable and pretentious detail, is growing here [proj.: Archikwadrat, 2006].
Historicizing office building on 27 Grudnia Street, 2006, proj.: Archikwadrat
photo: Jakub Głaz
At the same time, architects' resistance to the preservationist guidelines of the MKZ office, now headed by Maria Strzałko, judged conservative, is intensifying. Paradoxically, it agrees to completely rework the competition (!) design for the MM shopping center on Marcinkowskiego Avenue [design: Studio ADS, Piotr Z. Barełkowski; design: 2008, implementation: 2013]. Subdued elevations give way to a grotesque form resembling a climbing wall. However, such modernity is not what the complaining architectural community is after.
Arrowko's reign ends in 2012, Joanna Bielawska-Palczynskatakes over the post, and more diversity arrives. There is finally a place for strictly contemporary architecture. However, it is difficult to find the key by which decisions are made. This is because at the same time, in close proximity, buildings of diametrically opposed character are growing. In 2014, the breach at the northern end of the Old Town is supplemented by the PURO Hotel [design: ASW Architects], which successfully combines a contemporary flair with the rhythm of triangular gables alluding to old tenements.
PURO Hotel (design: ASW Architekci) combines contemporary forms with the order typical of an old town street
photo: Jakub Glaz
On Za Bramka Street, an original and award-winning office building with a completely modern facade [proj.: Ultra Architects] is standing in 2017, with the baroque City Hall peeking through its windows. But already wedged between Podgórna and Święty Marcin Streets, a Hampton by Hilton hotel decorated with arches and rows of cast-iron half-columns straight out of a 19th-century factory opens in 2019; even though there has never been a similar development at the site.
Office building on Za Bramka Street, proj.: Ultra Architects
photo: fot.majewski
Modern, simple forms, on the other hand, are taken by the increasingly frequent residential plats in the inner city. Some of them are very average and attractively connected with the neighborhood, like the complex of buildings on Dowbora Muśnickiego Street [designed by Ewa and Stanisław Sipiński Studio], while others are disastrous, like the overconfigured and non-functional building on Chwaliszewo near the buried Warta riverbed [designed by Piotr Z. Barełkowski]. Finally, infill buildings with successful proportions, refined facade detail and faced with ceramics, such as Nowa Sienna on the Warta River [design: Studio Lisiak] or the apartment buildings on Chwaliszewo Street [design: CDF Architects] and Bernardyński Square [design: Litoborski+Marciniak], which are nearing completion.
panorama of Chwaliszewo from the side of Warta River; on the left - Nowa Sienna, designed by Studio Lisiak, on the right - the latest investment by CDF Architekci studio;
both buildings were built a few years apart
photo: Jakub Glaz
Regardless of their more or less successful form, most of the latest Old Town seals have one thing in common: scale. The new developments swell to an enormous size, squeeze into courtyards, and have one or two stories too many. But - who knows, maybe it's a deliberate nod to history and preservationists: a direct reference to densely packed rental houses, courtyard-studiosand substandard outbuildings.
