The design of Sinfonia Varsovia's new headquarters by the Austrian office Atelier Thomas Pucher was completed in April 2021. On the penultimate day of the year, however, a tender was announced for a contractor for the first part of the concept. Divided into several stages, the project is to be implemented over the next few years.
first the monuments
Photo: Atelier Thomas Pucher
The investment is to be carried out until 2026. The city is looking for a contractor for the first stage of the work, as part of a tender just announced. It will mainly include the reconstruction of the historic buildings of the former Veterinary Institute on Grochowska Street. In addition, underground the contractor is to build technical rooms and foundations for the openwork frame, which is being implemented separately, and which will surround the entire site. The development of the buildings' surroundings will be changed - the garden around the orchestra's headquarters and the driveway from Terespolskaya Street will be pre-arranged. The work is expected to take two years. The estimated cost of the tendered stage is about PLN 76 million (net).
musical quarter
Photo: Atelier Thomas Pucher
Subsequent stages will include the construction of a complex of four concert halls, with the largest to accommodate more than 1,850 seats. The buildings will also include recording studios, rooms for music education classes, rooms for an artist residency program, bars, cafes and an extensive garden. The entire investment is expected to cost 660 million zlotys.
The buildings on Grochowska Street are historic, but in very poor condition. Despite this, the public is very supportive of us, with adults and children coming to events in the concert pavilion and other spaces. In two years we will be able to invite to a new venue. Not yet in a fully symphonic dimension, but ready to work with chamber ensembles and an educational program. This is a huge change for the residents and recipients of culture, for those who talk about Sinfonia Varsovia - ours from Kamionek. Because although we give concerts all over the world, it is the historic Kamionek that is our place.
Janusz Marynowski, director of Sinfonia Varsovia
inside the music
Photo: Atelier Thomas Pucher
The orchestra's new headquarters will occupy a plot of land located in Grochow, partly built over with existing historic buildings. The project includes not only the construction of a new edifice, but also the revitalization of existing parts and the arrangement of greenery. The characteristic "garden of music" with a suspended auditorium, openwork screen of the entire plot and historic buildings inscribed in it will become a new music quarter on the map of the right bank of Warsaw. The Sinfonia Varsovia Hall is an interesting project in which spectacular rows of seats for listeners, "suspended" more than 3 meters above the ground, will be an integral part. Their construction will wind around the hall like a ribbon. The orchestra will be perfectly visible from all seats. Eckhard Kahle of Kahle Acoustics points out that listeners will experience the effect of "being inside the music."
Photo: UM Warsaw
This is one of the most important cultural investments in Warsaw. And the announcement of the tender for the construction works is a key stage in a multi-year, complex process. The construction of the Sinfonia Varsovia Center is one of the flagship projects of the Prague Revitalization Program, of great importance for the development of the right bank of Warsaw. We want an element of this program to also support important cultural institutions in the area. Besides, music is an excellent platform for building and strengthening community.
Aldona Machnowska-Góra, Deputy Mayor of the City of Warsaw.
The construction of the new Concert Hall is part of revitalization efforts underway in Grochow - part of the Praga Południe district. The institution is expected to revitalize the still recently degraded and neglected areas of the city, which have been undergoing significant transformation in recent years.
