In town and around

Below: tram stop outside Rondo ONZ 1 tower. Modern public transport serving modern offices. A safe, clean, modern, reasonably priced city. Though peeking into an estate agent's window, I'm shocked at what's happened to house prices over the past ten years. From 2002 to 2014, hardly any movement, then a London-style explosion.

Below: Rondo ONZ 1 tower from across the road. All this was brand new not so very long ago; today the centre of gravity of Warsaw's business district is shifting westward towards Wola.

Below: one of my favourite thoroughfares in Warsaw, just around the corner from my office, ul. Świętokrzyska. Across the road from the Palace of Culture. And here's one my favourite shops in Warsaw, Voltarex, a shop selling high-end kitchen equipment. I pop in to buy a stainless-steel vegetable steamer insert for my pan; from now on, steamed broccoli, steamed asparagus, steamed runner beans, healthier and tastier than boiled veg. It's the end of April, and the restaurants have their pavement tables out, creating a wonderfully Mediterranean atmosphere. The long weekend is just beginning...

Below: ulica Grzybowska as it intersects aleja Jana Pawła II, shortly after sunset. The old 1990s Atrium International plaza has been demolished; the crane stands where the 34-story Upper One building will shortly emerge. My father spent his earliest years around here; on his last visit to Warsaw in 2019, he was delighted by how modern Warsaw has emerged from the rubble of Nazi occupation.

Warsaw might have moved forward dramatically, but here and there are signs of past ways of thinking. This one, for example, by a block of flats off Grzybowska, reeking linguistically of Tsarist-communist bureaucratic formalism. "Forbids one from leaving uncleanlinesses by the chute, key to the abovementioned space finds itself in the porter's kiosk". Note use of the agentless passive.

Below: back home in Jakubowizna, flags are out for 3 May, Poland's national day, remembering the world's second (after the USA) and Europe's first written constitution (1791).

Below: shimmering in a heat haze, Warsaw's skyline as seen from ul. Kinetyczna ('Kinetic Street'), on the south side of Warsaw airport.

Below: out by Warsaw Okęcie airport –a US Army Beechcraft C-12F Huron shortly after take off. (This is the basic transport aircraft, rather than the RC-12 Guardrail signals intelligence platform, which I see from time to time on FlightRadar24.com flying around the Baltic.)

Below: a Gulfstream G600 business jet belonging to the Bank of Utah (!) taking off from Okęcie.

Below: SP-LIM, a LOT Polish Airlines Embraer EJ170 in retro livery, passing the radio tower at the airport's edge....

...and this time in focus... 'Flying you since 1929'. 

This time three years ago:
Return to the Konstancin-Jeziorna sidings

This time six years ago:
A review of the second part of Hillier's Betjeman biog.

This time seven years ago:
New roads and rails

This time eight years ago:
The Gold Train shoot - lessons learned

This time 11 years ago:
Digbeth, Birmingham 5

This time 12 years ago:
Still months away from the opening of the S2/S79 

This time 13 years ago: 
Looking at progress along the S79  

This time 14 years ago:
Snow on 3 May

This time 15 years ago:
Two Polands

This time 16 years ago:
A delightful weekend in the country

This time 17 years ago:
The dismantling of the Rampa

This time 16 years ago:
Flag day

Warsaw city centre, dusk to darkness

To town for the leaving-do of a colleague (always a sad occasion when a excellent, competent and all-round nice person moves on) a beautiful cloudless sky brings on that 'crushed-velvet dusk in the city of my dreams' vibe again. Warsaw's city centre has developed fantastically over the past three decades, its skyline once dominated by Stalin's Palace of Culture slowly becoming crowded out by new skyscrapers. Little by little, Warsaw's central business district is shifting westward, its epicentre no longer focused around the axis of ulica Marszałkowska. Rondo ONZ ('United Nations Roundabout') and aleja Jana Pawła II now constitute the eastern edge of the CBD, and it's around here that I strolled yesterday evening.

Below: Rondo ONZ, an entrance to the Line 2 Metro station in the foreground. Note cycle path snaking round it. Two pizza delivery guys are setting off with their orders. To the left, the Ilmet building, completed in 1997, destined to be pulled down and replaced by a taller building in 2011, and still standing. The giant rotating Mercedes-Benz logo on the roof was taken down in 2021 (a shame!); demolition was postponed because of one thing after another, but as you can see, there are no longer any tenants in the building (no lights on) and new plans to dismantle it and build something new in its place were announced in 2023. Plans for building a 188m-tall skyscraper, Warsaw One, have been announced by developer Skanska, with construction due to start in 2026, which suggests that the Ilmet building will finally be torn down sometime this year.

Left: Rondo ONZ One stands on the south-east corner of the roundabout. It is 159m high (plus mast), so when built, Warsaw One across the road on the south-western corner will look down upon it. My favourite Warsaw skyscraper, its appearance in 2006 contributed hugely to cementing Warsaw's image as a modern city of business. As well as the metro station, Rondo ONZ is also well served by trams running up and down al. Jana Pawła II and (after modernisation) west along ul. Prosta. And Warsaw Central railway station is a mere seven-minute walk away.

Below: looking west along ul. Twarda ('Hard Street'); in the foreground, the Cosmopolitan tower, behind it, Spektrum tower. At the base of the former, a fine cafe called SAM where we had the leaving do. Spektrum tower boasts that it has "the highest-situated concert hall in the world" on its 28th floor, though this is contentious.

Below: Plac Grzybowski, looking west. Cosmopolitan tower in the centre, to the right, the Q22 tower, to the left Rondo ONZ One, and to its left, Warsaw Financial Center. 

Below: pl. Grzybowski looking southwest. In the foreground, the Church of All Saints (where, in 1923, my father was baptised); behind it from the left – the Intercontinental Hotel, the antenna topping Varso tower, Warsaw Financial Center and Rondo ONZ One. And shining brightly in the sky, Venus, the evening star (after whom my kitten is named).

After some decent food (and three glasses of surprisingly excellent Pinot Noir!), it's time to say farewell and set off to Młynów and thence to Chynów, accompanied by the strains of Yours Sinsoully in West Wilts Radio (for my weekly dose of finest soul and R&B). And there's a hungry kitten to feed!

Night falls. Below: a view of Warsaw largely unchanged since the 1970s, though with more (and bigger) cars. A reminder of the time when the Palace of Culture, seen here flanked by postwar apartment blocks, was the only tall building in Warsaw.

Below: and back to where I started – Rondo ONZ for the metro back to Młynów. Looking west towards the Warsaw's newest skyscrapers that stand around Rondo Daszyńskiego. The skyline will be filled out by the five towers currently under construction for the Towarowa 22 complex.

Warsaw is developing beautifully; a dynamic business hub, integrated into the European and global economies, with an excellent culinary and cultural infrastructure. May its growth be sustainable.

This time four years ago:
We live, we dream – what's all that about?

This time nine years ago:
Searching for growth

This time 12 years ago:
The more it snows - a decent snowfall in Warsaw

This time 13 years ago:
A Dream Too Far - short story

This time 14 years ago:
Compositions in white, blue and gold

This time 15 years ago:
Dobra and the road

This time 16 years ago:
Polish air force plane full of VIPs crashes on landing in bad weather

Hot in the city

Wednesday 16 September. Temperature at 16:30: 29C. Hot in the city. A day spent discussing the state of Poland's real estate and construction sector, and seeing it (in Warsaw at least) how it is, six months after the start of lockdown.

Below: I step out of W-wa Śródmieście station and onto ulica Emilii Plater, on my way to Q22. In the foreground, Daniel Liebeskind's Żagiel, Złota 44, to its right, the Intercontinental Hotel.

Below: on its way up, 38 stories and 155m tall when finished, Skysawa (how does one pronounce that? Skajsawa or Skysower?) is starting to emerge from ul. Świętokrzyska at the Rondo ONZ end. To the right, in the background, Spektrum tower.

Below: it's five to nine, I'm just about to enter Q22. I'm moderating our Real Estate & Construction Breakfast - for the first time in 14 years of doing them - as a webinar. Before the pandemic, at this time of day, the pavement is packed.

Below: view looking south from the 32nd floor of Q22. In the centre of frame, Varso tower, now overtaking Rondo ONZ 1, and when completed, Warsaw's - and the EU's - highest building.

Below: view looking west from the 32nd floor of Q22. In the centre of frame, Warsaw Spire. To the left of it, the cluster of office buildings around Rondo Daszyńskiego, with the Skyliner tower (190m) the tallest of them.

Below: back in the office for the first time in two weeks, and a quick peek to see how Central Point is doing. Not even at the halfway stage - but as lockdown got started, it was still a hole in the ground.

Below: Finished! Widok tower, and in front of it, the redesigned PKO Rotunda building.

Every building will be completed; unlike the crash of 2007-08, when construction came to a standstill, it hardly missed a beat this time round. But developers are not starting new projects. Everyone is waiting; maybe two years - to see the future of office work. What will be the balance between WFH (working from home) and coming into city-centre offices to meet colleagues? Once the pandemic eases (no sign yet!) the corporate world will eventually settle on an optimal, blended, hybrid model. But exactly how many desks will be needed remains to be seen - and this will determine the future growth of cities. The choice has always been between Upward and Outward. My guess is the latter. Unfortunately - sprawl will result.

This time last year:

Resting with the heroes

This time three years ago:
Polish employers' demographic challenge

This time seven years ago:
The rich, the poor, the entrepreneur

This time eight years ago:
Food: where's the best place to shop in Poland? 

This time nine years ago:
Bittersweet

This time ten years ago:
Commuting made easy

This time 11 years ago:
Work starts on the S79/S2 'Elka'

This time 12 years ago:
Warsaw's accident-filled streets

Grey February dusk, buzzing Warsaw

I can't remember (nor can I google) who said it, the quote about jazz being like going home from work a different way each day. Variety is important; today I got my paces in by walking from the office to W-wa Ochota station, along ulica Świętokrzyska, then under Rondo ONZ, along ul. Pańska, then south-west along ul. Twarda, then finally south along ul. Miedziana to the station.

Below: surviving prewar architecture sandwiched between Warsaw Trade Center and Rondo ONZ 1, the old social health insurance building on ul. Mariańska. The mural on the side facing Świętokrzyska says 'Revolution begins on the street' - let's hope not.

Below: entrance to Metro Rondo ONZ on Line 2 of the Warsaw Metro. Note the cranes on the skyline, beyond the next stop on the Metro, Rondo Daszyńskiego.

Below: view along ul. Prosta; Wola is ascending.

Below: I reach my destination, W-wa Ochota, its pavilion designed by Arseniusz Romanowicz and Piotr Szymaniak, completed in 1963.

The short (three carriages, loco-hauled) passing on the long-distance line in the foreground is the Warsaw to Lublin service.

Daytime high today was 14.1C, very warm for mid-February. One thing that's immutable is the lengthening day - the sun set at 16:51. Nearly an hour and half after the earliest sunset (15-21 December).

Bonus photo: the following day, a brief burst of sunlight just before nightfall... view from our office window, overlooking three building sites.

This time last year:
Skierniewice-Łuków line modernisation announced

This two years ago:
Entropy and anti-entropy in a constant-ruled universe

This time three years ago:
Truth, spin, bullshit and lies

This time four year:
How much spirituality do we need?

This time seven years ago:
The Chosen Ones

This time eight years ago:
Fixies in the snow

This time 11 years ago:
Just the ticket

Night time's the right time for snapping Warsaw in late autumn

Above: Rondo ONZ One, as seen from ulica Emilii Plater, looking down ul. Pańska, which runs all the way west to ul. Towarowa, and is truncated by the building you see in front of you. Incidentally, rare is the Polish street name that always uses first name and surname; it's usually surname only.

Below: The Palace of the Youth, on the north side of Stalin's Palace of Culture, facing ul. Świętokrzyska.

Below: my favourite stretch of Świętokrzyska, where the two competing shops, both selling kitchenware, compete for the same clients. If one hasn't got exactly what you're looking for, the other one well may have. And note the trees that now line the street; they were planted last autumn. Can you spot Ziggy Stardust? He's in several of my photos of this street...

I quite often see film shoots happening in central Warsaw; here's one on the corner of Świętokrzyska and Emilii Plater.

Left: lovely neon, marking the current location of the museum of modern art (Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej). To the left, a sheet-metal fence marks the site of the old Emilia building, former home of the museum and before that the location of Stołeczne Przedsiębiorstwo Handlu Wewnętrznego 'Meble Emilia' (The Capital City Enterprise of Internal Trade 'Furniture Emilia')


Below: down underground, looking into the transversal railway tunnel. This is the main line tracks running east from Warsaw Central station (W-wa Centralna). In the distance an InterCity Pendolino train crosses over the points.

Below: also looking east along the transversal railway tunnel, but this is the suburban line. The long-distance tracks lie beyond the wall to the left. Photo taken from the end of platform 3, W-wa Śródmieście station.

Two London Stock Exchange FTSE 250-listed companies are present in the new Sezam building (opened June 2018). They are recruitment firm Hays, and Spaces, part of IWG (International Workplace Group, better known under its old brand, Regus). Between the footpath (foreground) and ul. Marszalkowska (beyond which is Sezam), there will soon appear a new 20-story office building, Central Point, right outside my office window (to the left of this frame). Fitting, as I spent years working at Centre Point in London.

If you think Warsaw looks good now - wait until the Christmas lights come on later this week!

Bonus shot: Three generations of Warsaw architecture

This time last year:
Autumnal travel woes

This time four years ago:
Thoughts on Polish hypochondria

This time seven years ago:
Blogging resumes as Orange gets its act together

This time eight years ago:
The meaning of Clarkson 

This time nine years ago: 
A bad day on the railway

This time ten years ago:
In which I walk to work

This time 12 years ago:
Act 1, Scene 1, a blasted heath

Warsaw, towards the end of the summer holidays

Conscious of the waning summer, yet waiting with certain trepidation that moment of mono no aware - the Japanese term for the very first intimations of impending autumn. In the meanwhile, Warsaw is still in a late summer holiday mood. Below: taken from the back of a number 4 tram, a rather classic photo, if I may say so myself!

Below: the mirror'd canyons of Al. Jana Pawła II, the Q22 building in the foreground, Rondo ONZ 1 in the distance. Manhattan-on-the-Vistula, soon to become even more so as new skyscrapers begin to rise from the earth.

Below: in the far distance - cranes. This is where Varso tower will soon dominate the skyline - by 2020, it will be the highest building in the EU. The building with the Mercedes-Benz logo is the 22-storey Ilmet tower, which currently awaits demolition ahead of the building of something taller.

Left: the entrance to Rondo ONZ station on Line 2 of Warsaw's two-line Metro system. Work is currently underway to extend the line north-eastwards and westwards at the same time. Once extended, Line 2 will have the effect of shifting the centre of gravity of Warsaw's central business district out towards Wola and Praga Północ.

Below: the tree-lined Al. Jana Pawła II, a fine thoroughfare. Trees still very green, despite this year's hot summer.

Below: from this location, on the north-east side of Rondo ONZ, there will be yet another change in the skyline in the next two years - PHN tower will rise in this space, between Q22 (left), Spektrum tower (centre) and the Cosmopolitan building on Twarda 22 (right). PHN tower - also known as City Tower, will be 38 floors high.

Further along ul. Świętokrzyska, outside my office window, the foundations of another skyscraper, the 24-storey high Central Point, are being laid. Again, ready for 2020. Add a plethora of office development around Rondo Daszyńskiego, and it's clear that the next few years will see dramatic changes of Warsaw's skyline.

Below: looking out of my office the other way, towards PASTa - Warsaw's first skyscraper, captured from the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising 74 years ago yesterday, commemorates the event with Home Army national flags.

Left: another building whose image remains linked with the Warsaw Uprising - the Prudential tower, Poland's first modern skyscraper (and home to the Polish-British Chamber of Commerce before WW2), completed in 1933. At the time, Europe's second highest building! Photo also taken from my office window. Currently in the last phase of refurbishment, it will soon be reopened as a luxury hotel.

By early next week, Warsaw will be back at work; schools start in earnest the week after that, so time to make the most of the last days of the summer holiday season. September to mid-December is the busiest time of year in the Northern Hemisphere!

This time four years ago:
Plans for modernising the Warsaw-Radom railway line

This time five years ago:
World's largest ship calls in at Gdańsk

This time seven years ago:
Raymond's Treasure - a short story

This time eight years ago: 
Now an urban legend: Kebab factory under W-wa Centralna 

This time nine years ago: 
It was twenty years ago today 

This time 11 years ago: 
By bike to Czachówek again

Warsaw in May finery

The Ice Saints have not brought a cold snap this May; temperatures this week have been in the low- to mid- 20Cs. It pays to have a camera with you at all times (these days most people do - in their phones; though few use them effectively). Below: seven Fiat 125Ps on Plac Defilad in front of the Palace of Culture. The 1980s cars, painted as taxis of the late communist era, do tourist trips around town.

The strong spring sunshine is best brought out with the circular polarising filter. As you turn it, so the blue of the sky deepens. Below: ul. Marszałkowska crosses over Al. Armii Ludowej, with Pl. Zbawiciela in the background.

Another use of the circular polarising filter is to enhance or suppress rainbows. Below: 'Bow- no 'bow. In the first photo, the filter is turned to maximise the rainbow, then turned through 90 degrees, the rainbow disappears. Without the filter (and with it turned between these two positions), the rainbow is seen, though weakly.

Left: the new Q22 office tower on Al. Jana Pawła II is nearly finished - as is Warsaw Spire. The two new skyscrapers add to Warsaw's modern skyline. This picture was taken from the 26th floor of Rondo ONZ 1, looking north.

Eddie says there's a new fish restaurant nearby (Ę Rybę, Al. Jana Pawła II 18, near the foot of the white building in the mid-foreground). Walking distance from my office - will have to check it out!

Below: between Dworzec Centralny and Złote Tarasy, looking towards the Palace of Culture. It's not quite half past eleven in the morning.

Below: ul. Świętokrzyska, looking west towards ul. Emilii Plater. In the strong afternoon sunlight, it has the relaxed atmosphere of a Mediterranean thoroughfare.

Warsaw is at its best in May and June, before it gets too hot and humid.

This time four years ago:
What's left of PGR Mysiadło

This time five years ago:
What's the Polish for puncture?

This time seven years ago:
Welcome the Ice Saints
[and on cue, temperature falls from 30C yesterday to 12C today at noon]

This time eight years ago:
Like a Kodachrome

This time nine years ago:
The future of cities