Located in the heart of Wola, the Warsaw dialect square will soon change its face. The Warsaw City Council has allocated the necessary funds for the implementation of the project developed by the Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu under the direction of Marta Tomasiak.
The plan for the development of the swker
photo: Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu / Zarząd Zieleni Miejskiej m.st. Warszawy.
A place with history
Skwer Gwary Warszawskiej is a green area located between Młynarska, Leszno and Aleja Solidarności streets. This is where the district center was planned after the war, the erection of which began with the PDT department store, the W-Z cinema and the Venice bar. Not all of these outstanding buildings have lived to see our times. The W-Z Cinema , designed by Mieczyslaw Piprek, was demolished in 2010. The iconic Venice Bar , designed by Zbigniew Ihnatowicz, Jerzy Soltan and A. Szczepinski was extensively remodeled into a private hospital and lost its architectural qualities. The least changed, at least from the outside, was the WolskiPDT building. However, the building, designed by Michal Przerwa-Tetmajer, was thoroughly rebuilt inside. Among other things, the glass paintings from the mid-1950s decorating the interiors were removed; their authors were prominent artists Marek Włodarski and Tadeusz Błażejowski. A few years later, some of the panels were found by accident in a decommissioned warehouse.
W-Z Cinema, PDT Wola, Bar Venice
photo: Zbyszko Siemaszko - NAC, Wikimedia Commons
This is an exceptionally important place in Mlynow, historically the local center of the neighborhood. Before the war, the carousels of the Venice Lunapark used to spin here, and since the 1960s the iconic modernist bar of the same name, as well as the PDT department store and the W-Z cinema, have attracted crowds. We want the now-forgotten space to become a local center again - a place for neighborhood gatherings, sports and cultural events.
- says Justyna Glusman, director coordinator of Sustainability and Greenery.
Exemplary cooperation
Visualization of the swker
photo: Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu / Zarząd Zieleni Miejskiej m.st. Warszawy.
The origins of the new square project date back to 2017 when the first workshops and public consultations were organized. About half a thousand people were involved in the project, including residents and employees of nearby institutions. The project was implemented as a joint project of the Warsaw Greenery Board, designers from the Landscape Architecture Studio and sociologists from the Na Miejscecu Foundation.
Visualization of the swker
photo: Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu / Warsaw Urban Greenery Board.
In November 2018, a contract was signed for the development concept for the square. In 2020,the Board of Greenery of the City of Warsaw applied to the Warsaw Council for additional funds that will allow the project to be implemented. This year, design work will begin, with officials announcing the start of work in 2022.
Vibrant, green center of the district
Visualization of the swker
photo: Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu / Zarząd Zieleni Miejskiej m.st. Warsaw City Greenery Board.
The project was developed based on a local partnership of many institutions - local government, cultural institutions and business - around five functional zones: park, clearing, avenue, entrance squares and lagging. The space of the new square is to be linked to the urban context both physically - restoring the possibility of pedestrian crossings at street level (it is not known, however, when this part of the project will be implemented), introducing a bicycle path, clearly marking the entrance zones to the square, as well as the historical context - programmatic and aesthetic references to the history of the place. References to the site's glory years include the former WZ Cinema and the introduction of a summer cinema, pendant lighting on the terrace of the Venice Restaurant and contemporary lighting of the clearing, furniture solutions by Soltan and Ihnatowicz, architects of the Venice Restaurant inspiring urban furniture designed today.
