Skyscraper instead of would-be container park

Kacper Kępiński

06 of November '23

Skyscraper visualization

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The implant didn't take, and the operation wasn't even completed. The unfinished, advertised as the world's largest container park of its kind, was demolished. After the sale of the plot by the Polish Post Office, a new investor enters the game. Cavatina plans to build a mixed-use complex with a skyscraper more than a hundred meters high at the site.

The latest plans published by the investor are only a preliminary concept of how the plot between Chmielna Street and Jerozolimskie Avenue will be developed. Right next to the same developer's earlier project—a glass pyramid at 89 Chmielna Street—a more diverse development is to be built.

visualization of the interior of the quarter

We will bring the quality of space in this neighborhood to a new, higher level—we want to combine the mix of apartments, retail and service outlets and offices here with cultural and recreational spaces. There is a great demand there for open to the city and its residents, green and functional common areas. In developing the concept, we are using the best practices gained in the construction of other projects, and in the design phase we are considering cooperation between our architects and a renowned architectural firm, " announces Rafal Malarz, CEO of Cavatina Holding.

The planned skyscraper, which will accommodate office space, is to be located on the side of Jerozolimskie Avenue and will be a continuation of the taller developments in the area—from Warta Tower to the nearby Varso. The main part of the quarter of the new development is to be residential buildings with services on the first floors with a height of about eight floors.

Visualization of the skyscraper—in the foreground, Cavatina's previous investment

At the corner of Żelazna and Chmielna streets, a second dominant building with 17 floors is planned. According to the investor, it will correspond with the nearby Holiday Inn hotel, which with its 53-meter-high mass now towers over the surrounding buildings.

visualization from Chmielna Street

The heart of the quarter is to be a public courtyard, which, according to the announcements, would include space for culture and art, as well as numerous services. The whole is complemented by greenery including overgrown bridges overhanging between the buildings above the passages to the courtyard.

visualization of the interior of the quarter

The enticing visualizations, however, are a very preliminary, non-committal vision of where the developer is headed. The architectural studio that will prepare the final design has not yet been selected. Discussions and arrangements with the city authorities will also be key. Currently, development at the site is not restricted by the local zoning plan—because there is none. The study, on the other hand, allows the construction of a high-rise building. The draft of the new study, which went to the freezer, set the maximum height of development at the site at 29 meters.

On the attractive plot, construction of a container town was still underway until recently. Designed by Jakub Szczęsny's studio, Implant was to become the largest of its kind in the world. However, its construction was never completed. The investor's financial woes, a pandemic and a controversial system of financing the investment eventually caused the project to be shut down in 2022, announcing that it would be built elsewhere in Warsaw.

The implant was not, by the way, the first abandoned project at the site. In 2005, SARP held a competition for the Polish Post office building, which was won by Miroslaw Jednacz's studio. After many changes, visualizations of a 130-meter-high skyscraper with a 25-meter-high podium filling the plot tightly were presented in 2008. Four years later, the project was suspended, and the plot was put up for sale—to no avail. It was not until 2023 that the site was bought from the Polish Post for nearly 150 million zlotys by Cavatina.