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.

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We live, we dream – what's all that about?

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Polish air force plane full of VIPs crashes on landing in bad weather

Rainy Night in Warsaw

Awful weather; cold rain and wind. Heavy rain. My walk from the office to Varso tower runs mostly underground; through Metro Centrum's passages, along the platforms of W-wa Śródmieście and W-wa Centralna, I avoid a total soaking.

Below: tipping it down, evening rush hour, looking north up Aleja Jana Pawła II. On the left, the base of Varso tower, across the street in the distance, the skyline is dominated by Rondo ONZ One; Złoty Tarasy shopping centre and the Lumen building to the right across the flyover. And I remember Warsaw without any of these landmarks from not that long ago!

Left: still looking north along Al. JPII as it snakes its way through central Warsaw, this time from the 42nd floor of Varso tower. That low cloud is passing rapidly across the city, blown south by a cold, wind.

Below: homeward bound after the event, the rain has passed. Looking north along ulica Towarowa; W-wa Główna station to the left, Warsaw Hub tower, with the Skyliner just behind it, and across the road, Warsaw Unit tower. That giant Warta sign is visible from Chynów station, on Kilometre 43 of the Warsaw-Radom line.

Below: the same cluster of buildings, through the trees and across the tracks. In the foreground, an east-bound suburban train approaches W-wa Ochota station, W-wa Główna terminus stands behind it, the beyond it, Skyliner, Warsaw Hub and Warsaw Unit.

Below: the Mercedes-Benz building on Aleje Jerozolimskie. Outside of working hours, the area around this building is dead. I suggest turning part of it into a Museum of Motoring, open at the weekend.

Below: back in Jakubowizna, the cloud bank overhead caught my eye. It passed; a short period of sunshine before the next load of clouds arrived.

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The Ilyushin Il-12 'restaurant' disappears from outside my office

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Walker's London

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Winter returns to Warsaw

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Babcia vs. Roma action, Centrum 

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Skiing in the Beskid Wyspowy

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What's to be done about Warsaw's unmade roads?

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Jeziorki in the fog

Opening to up a new western Warsaw

Looking at Warsaw's skyline from the south over the past 25 years, it's visible that the city's central business district is shifting westwards. The big new towers are all west of the Palace of Culture, and more are rising. 

The closure of the transversal railway line to trains coming up from Radom and their diversion northward around the west of the city centre gives me a new perspective on the Warsaw district of Wola. If, like me, you can't tell ulica Wolska from ul. Kasprzaka, knowing only that they are a pair of parallel thoroughfares running west out of the city centre, this is a good opportunity to learn more.

Today I had a meeting in the Warsaw Hub, the big new office located on Rondo Daszyńkiego, the new centre of gravity for offices. Normally, I'd have taken the train to W-wa Ochota and walked north from there. Now, I took the train to W-wa Wola and walked east from there. 

Now, W-wa Wola used to be called W-wa Kasprzaka, being renamed in 2018 when the old W-wa Wola became W-wa Zachodnia Peron 8 (now W-wa Zachodnia Peron 9). The roads and pavements around the station and the junction with Aleja Prymasa Tysiąclecia are currently one great hole in the ground as the new tram line here is extended westwards. Result: an obstacle course for pedestrians, a major inconvenience for drivers.

Between Rondo Tybetu (naming this roundabout after Tibet had the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw hopping mad!) and Rondo Daszyńskiego is a stretch of road that was once home to light industry (a radio factory, a pharmaceutical plant), but this part of of Wola, Czyste, now is experiencing rapid change.

Below: typical architecture for the area, a communist take on Mid-Century Modern, the building of the Institute of Chemistry. I stand here puzzled by the 'H' in 'ICHF' and 'ICHO' until I realise that it's 'CH' as in Chemia. (Instytut Chemii Fizycznej/Instytut Chemii Organicznej. PAN = Polska Akademia Nauk - Polish Academy of Sciences) Note the PRL-era paving slabs. 

Left: Marcin Kasprzak. He was a communist - so he was bad. But he was Polish - so he was good. But he shot dead four policemen - so he was bad. But they were Russian - so he was good. But he worked with Rosa Luxemburg - so he was bad. But he was backed by Józef Piłsudski - so he was good. 

On balance, the long street named after him didn't get a new patron after 1989, unlike streets named after other communist organisers (Marceli Nowotko, Julian Marchlewski). And the statue remains.

What's more - there's another monument to Kasprzak on ul. Kasprzaka (below) - standing where stood his house, from where he set out to kill the Russian policemen. It was erected in his memory in 1950, on the 45th anniversary of his being strung up by the Tsarist occupant.

Left: you will have noticed the pink votive candle at the foot of the monument; people still come to pay their respect to the Firebrand of the Proletariat. Lying on the other side of the cyclepath, a zebra crossing was painted to its surface to ensure the mourners' safety in reaching the monument. Wonder what Kasprzak would have made of the Polish HQ of a French bank in the environs of his former family home...?

Below: the clump of buildings around Rondo Daszyńskiego, the face of the new Warsaw. Two buildings still going up, the heart of the financial district. In the foreground, the tram line swings round towards the camera, away from the line of ul. Kasprzaka, taking trams north up ul. Skierniewicka towards ul. Wolska, where they turn left and continue westwards towards Bemowo and Boernerowo. Once complete, they'll run straight through.

Below: completely at odds with its new neighbours, the old Polfa Warszawa plant is due to be sold, knocked down and redeveloped - as a complex of apartment buildings.

Left: Layer upon layer of Warsaw, from old brick to the futurist glass construction of the Spire, with all points in between. This is still a common sight in Warsaw, but in coming years old brick from before 1939 will either be knocked down or restored to its former glory, and most buildings built between 1945 and 2000 will eventually be torn down and the sites redeveloped

Below: Rondo Dash in all its new-found glory, and more new buildings to come on either side of the roundabout. In the centre, the Skyliner building and Towarowa towers rising to its right. In the background, the Warsaw Hub tower...

Below: looking west from the  26th floor of the Warsaw Hub. Now - you can't see the Palace of Culture from here, it's hidden behind Złota 44 ('Żagiel'), to its right, Varso tower now dominates the skyline. In the foreground, the vast building site that will become the Towarowa 22 mixed-use development with a series of 'stepped' skyscrapers here, each one taller than its neighbour, rising to the tallest one at 150m.

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The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli - review

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Brexit and Trump - a political fiction

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The law of diminishing returns disappears up its own fundament

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A night at the Filters (Museum Night 2011)

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Warsaw's Museum Night

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Exploring my anomalous memory events

Jabbed!

Well, I got my first dose of the Pfizer today, and I must say everything went unbelievably smoothly - an experience at odds with every previous encounter with the Polish state health service! I turned up about 12 minutes early, waited a bit, filled in two forms ("have you had/have you got"/"no, no, no, no"), had my blood oxygen taken (98%), then went in to have the jab - which I literally did not feel ("Have you done it yet?" I asked after the doctor swabbed the area.) And - the best bit - I have an appointment for the second jab on 11 May. Before the doctor had even looked up from her laptop, I got a SMS from the system with news of the second appointment on my phone. And - another good bit - seven hours afterwards, I can honestly say I feel no side effects. But I expect a sore arm in the morning after sleeping half the night on it.

Meanwhile, my first journey into Warsaw on public transport since 1 October - and so much change! W-wa Główna station has finally opened (though the footbridge at the western end of the platforms is still not ready); W-wa Zachodnia (below) is deep in the early stages of its latest remont, with some of the long-distance platforms partially demolished already. You can see where the new footbridge is going to go - the pillars are going up. This will replace the tunnel that currently connects the platforms.

Left: this is Central Point, a hole in the ground a year ago as the lockdown began. It is right outside my office (which I have not been to now in over six months) - but as we've moved from the 9th floor to the 4th, I'm no longer expecting any views. In London, I used to work in Centre Point (also on the 9th floor), but Centre Point has 34 floors, Central Point a mere 21, the same height as the four tower blocks on the Ściana Wschodnia.

Right: I can see it from Jeziorki - now, officially the tallest building in the EU, taller than Stalin's Palace of Culture, taller than London's Shard - Varso tower tops out, the mast now up on its roof. It now dominates Warsaw's skyline, the first - I hope - of many skyscrapers that one day will surround the Palace of Culture, rendering it invisible from the distance. From Jeziorki, I see the other (southern-facing) side of the tower. From here (ulica Emilii Plater), I can see how much there's still to finish. To the right - Daniel Libeskind's Żagiel building.

Below: another skyscraper that's popped up since lockdown - Skysawa tower, at 155m not even high enough to get into Warsaw's Ten Tallest. For a long time, a hole in the ground - then suddenly whoomph! and there it is.

Postscript I - I can now feel an odd sensation - my left (jabbed) arm feels like I've overdone the pull-ups and the weights - usually when I get this, it's in both arms!

Postscript II - 48 hours later the dull ache is easing, taking another day off the exercises and walking to be on the safe side.

Postscript III - Neighbours had the AstraZeneca jab yesterday - today, they are reporting fever, shivers and muscle pain.

This time last year:

'God' and 'Nation' don't go together!

This time two years ago:
Działka update 

This time three years ago:
Łódź is a film set

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Contemplative imagery, Ealing and Warsaw

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Baffled: my first visit to Jeziorki's Lidl 

This time ten years ago:
In vino veritas?

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Are we getting more intelligent?

This time 12 three years ago:
Lenten recipe: tuna, chickpea and pesto salad

This time 13 years ago:
Coal train sidings, Konstancin-Jeziorna

This time 14 years ago:
Jeziorki from the air

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

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Polish employers' demographic challenge

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This time nine years ago:
Bittersweet

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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.

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Skierniewice-Łuków line modernisation announced

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

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Truth, spin, bullshit and lies

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How much spirituality do we need?

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The Chosen Ones

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Fixies in the snow

This time 11 years ago:
Just the ticket

Warsaw growing in the sun

Last night, yesterday, was foul - nine hours of rain, +6C; puddles, mud - awful. Then overnight, something wonderful happened - the wind changed from a warm westerly to an icy northerly. The temperature fell ten degrees overnight, by dawn it was -4C, I opened the curtains this morning to a clear blue sky and snow on the lawn. But no time to lose - I headed into town for 8am to chair our Construction and Real Estate Breakfast at the Westin. On the way from W-wa Śródmieście WKD station, I passed the viewing platform (below) from which work on Warsaw's latest and greatest skyscraper, Varso tower, can be observed.

What a day! The clarity of the sky offset somewhat by the biting wind, but my quilt-lined M-65 jacket stands me in good stead. "No such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing." Below: view from the top of the viewing gallery. Varso (designed by Norman Foster & Partners, developed by H. B. Reavis) will be the highest building in the EU, and is due to be completed next year.

Below: from Varso Place's website, an impression of the restaurant and bar on the 53rd floor. I can't wait to have a drink here and look down onto the Palace of Culture below!

Warsaw's bright new face shining in the sun. Below: the junction of Al. Jana Pawła II and ul. Grzybowska, the Q22 building in the centre.

Below: the strong wind blows away any smog, the chimney at the Kawęczyn district heating plant 9km to the east of our office is as clear as it's ever been on a winter's day, the horizon razor-sharp.

Below: cranes over the Widok Towers (also known as J44, Al. Jerozolimskie 44), on the site of the old Universal building. And, just in front of it, the new PKO Rotunda takes shape, replacing the old Rotunda (rebuilt after the gas explosion 40 years ago that killed 49 people). Worth comparing with the post, from March 2017.

There's much construction going on in Warsaw with many new towers that will be complete over the next two years, the urban skyline will change, no longer dominated by Stalin's gift to the Polish nation, which from the south-west at least, will disappear from view.

Below: looking towards a setting sun, from the end of platform 6 at W-wa Zachodnia station. In the distance the Radomiak heads off towards Radom, via Drzewica and Przysucha (in other words down the CMK avoiding the modernisation work between Czachówek and Warka).

This time last year:
Of Consciousness and Will across the universe

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The Devil is indeed Doubt

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Are you aware of your consciousness?

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"Why are all the good historians British?"

This time seven years ago:
Central Warsaw, evening rush-hour

This time eight years ago:
Cold and getting colder

This time ten years ago:
Uwaga! Sople!

This time 11 years ago:
Ul. Poloneza at its worst

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