Below: looking down at the geometric crenellations of the roof from the Intercontinental. The chipboard walls at either end of the pavilion were added later; originally, Dom Meblowy Emilia was glazed all round.
Below: a photo I took in September 2012, when news of Emilia's impending fate was announced. Beyond it, the Warsaw Financial Centre, and, still under construction, the Cosmopolitan Twarda 2/4 building. Note the 'EMILIA' sign on the roof. This has been saved for posterity...
...and has been relocated to Soho Factory on ul. Minska, the wonderful post-industrial enclave of start-up incubators, restaurants and bars, apartments - and of course Warsaw's neon museum. Below: the EMILIA sign at its new location. Next to it, the Jubiler sign that used to hang on the jeweller's shop on the corner of Al. Jerozolimskie and ul. Krucza.
But it wasn't just the neon. Outside the shop was this memorable signage consisting of back-lit plastic blocks. I took this picture in March 2010
Let's have a better look at it... a splendid piece of Polish design at its modernist best.
All is not lost. Far from it. The Meble Emilia pavilion will be rebuilt across the road in Park Świętokrzyski. Hopefully without the blocked-off ends, so that once again, passers-by will be able to wall all round it and peer in through glass walls, front, back and both sides.
This time last year:
On being rich in Poland
This time four years ago:
The link between health and happiness explored
This time five years ago:
The black SUV, the black SUV... (with the darkened rear windows)
This time six years ago:
Atonement
This time nine years ago:
Where I'm from, and why
Posts
1 comment:
I hate seeing those old modernist building disappear. I lived in the south for seven years, and I was very disappointed a few years ago when I went back for a visit and discovered that the Nowy Targ bus station had been completely razed. I felt the same as I had about a decade earlier when the old Krakow bus station had been demolished: if only I'd had enough forewarning, I would have gone in with several rolls of film and just shot away...
Post a Comment