Wroclaw finally has a City Architect! Jacek Barski, a long-time employee of the Wrocław office, has been appointed to this important position.
The previous holder of the position of Architect of the City of Wroclaw was Piotr Fokczynski, who held the post from 2003 until March 2021, when a controversial decision was made to dismiss him from the office.
difficult subject matter and teamwork
The institution of a city architect, the scope of his activities is not described anywhere in Polish law, there is no such creation. Taking this type of action is possible on the basis of an order of the mayor. I say this because we will be moving in a difficult matter and also without active support in the form of legislation," stressed Jacek Barski, City Architect and Director of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture of the City Hall of Wroclaw, during the press conference.
However, Barski will not act alone - he will be assisted in his work by a team of ten specialists: Anna Kościuk - chairwoman of the Lower Silesian Regional Chamber of Architects; Piotr Zybura - president of the Wroclaw branch of SARP, prof. Barbara Gronostajska - dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Wrocław University of Technology, Dr. Michał Duda - director of the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Janusz Szczepański - chairman of the council of the Lower Silesian District Chamber of Civil Engineers, Krzysztof Wartenberg - architect, specialist in, among other things, the conservation andrevalorization of historic buildings, Magdalena Wankowska (deputy chairman of the team) - director of the Department of Architecture and Monuments of the City Hall, Municipal Conservator of Monuments, Przemysław Matyja - director of the Department of Spatial Planning of the City Hall, urban planner of the City of Wroclaw, and Katarzyna Młynarczyk (secretary of the team) from the Department of Architecture and Monuments of the City Hall. The team will begin work at the beginning of next year.
Its tasks will include, among others, consulting on architectural concepts and construction projects that are important for the city, influencing architectural and urban planning competitions, making recommendations on investments under thehousing speculative law (lex developer), as well as formulating proposals and comments in support of high-quality solutions that will respond to social, cultural, environmental challenges, while respecting the cultural continuity and spatial identity of the city.A challenge made all the more difficult by the fact that, as Barski stressed, there is still no statutory authorization for this function.
Who is the new architect of Wroclaw?
Dr. Jacek Barski is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Wrocław University of Technology, where from 1989 to 2019 he worked in the structures of the Department of Spatial Planning. Since 2001 he has been associated with the Wroclaw local government; first as deputy director of the Wroclaw Development Office for spatial planning, then in the role of Director of the Department of Architecture and Development, functioning today as the Department of Strategy and City Development. He participated in the work on all editions of the Study of Conditions and Directions for Spatial Development of Wroclaw and several hundred local development plans. He was one of the main organizers of the 2006 Congress of Polish Urban Planning and the Congress of the European Organization of Metropolitan Cities METREX. He is also the author of a number of important Wroclaw buildings, including the plat on L. Pasteur Street in Wroclaw and the expansion of the Laboratory of the Faculty of Chemistry at Wroclaw University
