Prosta Tower

Main data:

Height to the roof: 70 m
Total height: 70 m
Number of floors: 20
Planned term of finishing: 2011
Designers: APA Kuryłowicz & Associates
Location: ul. Prosta 32

Soon on Warsaw district of Wola one more office building, with a very unusual form, will be finished. It will be attached to the solid of Lucka City, which is said to be one of the worst skyscrapers in Warsaw - looking like a fortess, or sometimes called an ant-hill. The new building, called Prosta Tower will be 70 metres high and was designed by one of most famous Polish architects - Stefan Kurylowicz, who died tragically shortly before the construction of the skyscraper was finished.

Actually, this project was close to complete cancelling. Initially it was planned that the skyscraper would be an apartment building, with only very limited office space. 40 luxurious apartments was supposed to be located here. But a slow-down on the market, which caused a decrease for apartments' demand, verified that plans. In 2008 the construction was stopped after finishing only 5 floors of underground car park. For a few months nothing was going on on the building site and finally a decision of changing the building's function was made - it will be eventually an office building. Also an architectural project was modified. Initially, elevations were planned to be made mostly of stone, with an extra 'wavy' glass surfaces located on the side of Prosta street. In the new, office-version of the project the elevations will be made of glass, but on the front wall (from Prosta street) a concrete structure, looking like an enormous net will appear. The building's height was also decreased comparing to the previous version - the building will be 1 floor lower, it will be of the same height as the neighbouring southern wall of Lucka City. But the building's general form was unchanged - it will be a solid which will widen smoothly to the top. For sure, the main advantage of the building will be that it will decrease (at least to some extend) the domination of Lucka City over the area.

Marvipol is the investor of Prosta Tower. This company is a specialist on apartment buildings' construction - it has already finished more than ten such objects in different parts of Warsaw. With this project the company want to attract tenants, who look for an luxurious office space in an attractive location, but of smaller size - a minimum space for rent in the building is only 150 square metres; altogether a rentable office space is just more than 5000 square metres.

Visualizations:

The first version of the design (the building will not be constructed in this form):

A view from south-eastern side A night view A view similar to the first one, in the bottom Prosta street (leading to west)

The new version of the project (currently under construction):

A view from the side of Daszynskiego Roundabout A view from the top The elevation next to Prosta street

Photos of the building site:

Photos taken on 26th of November 2009:

A general view from south-western side A view from the southern side Another view from Prosta street Till now the structure of 4 floors has been finished Still much is lacking to cover the southern wall of Lucka City A view from the side of Daszynskiego Rondabout

Photos taken on 24th of January 2010:

Lucka City and the new, arising building 'sticked' to its southern wall A view from the close, 7th floor is being constructed A view from south-western side (from in the front of 'Rzeczpospolita' building A view a bit broader than the previous one Behind the scaffolding we can already see an unusual concrete net A view from the front One more view from Daszynskiego Roundabout Another view from Daszynskiego Roundabout A view from Prosta street (next to its narrowing)

Photos taken on 2nd of April 2010:

The building already has 10 floors A view from south-western side A view from Prosta street A view from south-eastern side A view from in the front of 'Rzeczpospolita' building This will be the front wall A bit narrower view from Prosta street

Photos taken on 23th of April 2010:

The 12th floor is being constructed A view from Prosta street A view from the front A view from south-eastern side A view from the close (from the northern side of Prosta street)

Photos taken on 20th of May 2010:

The building sticked to Lucka City is going higher and higher A close-up of another constructed floor A view from south-eastern side A close-up of the scaffolding, a concrete 'net' is constructed behind it The western wall of the building A view from the western side One more view from the western side South-eastern side of the building New parts of the structure are being transported by a crane A view from Prosta street A view from a distance (from western side of Daszynskiego roundabout)

Photos taken on 28th of July 2010:

A view from the area of ONZ Roundabout A view from south-eastern side The new skyscraper is already higher than the lower part of Lucka City A view from south-western side The western wall of the building A close-up of the upper-part of the structure Lucka City with the new building 'sticked' to it - a view from Daszynskiego Roundabout

Photos taken on 22nd of September 2010:

A view from the back (from Lucka street) A view from Prosta street (the western side of the building) The structure of the building has already reached the final height On the eastern wall first fragment of the elevation's covering appeared A view from south-eastern side Behind the scaffolding already finished 'net' can be seen on the southern wall of the building A view from Daszynskiego Roundabout A view from Prosta street A view from the intersection of Lucka and Wronia streets Lucka City with the new building 'sticked' to it (a view from the intersection of Lucka and Wronia) A close-up of the upper part of the building Lucka City, together with the new building - a view from Prosta street Another view from Daszynskiego Roundabout A view from south-western side

Photos taken on 22nd of October 2010:

When looking on the southern we can get an impression how the unusual 'net' elevation will look like A view from south-eastern side A view from Prosta street (from the intersection with Zelazna street) The building seen together with the neighbouring Lucka City (from south-eastern side) The western wall of the building A view from Daszynskiego Roundabout One more view from Daszynskiego Roundabout A view from the intersection of Prosta and Wronia streets A close-up to the unusual 'net', also its smooth bend can be seen Such an unusual form will for sure distinguish the building much A view from the close (from south-eastern side) Lucka City skyscraper will for sure gain much thanks to the new building's neighbourhood A view from far distance (from the area of the intersection of Jerozolimskie Avenue and Spiska street) The building's 'signature' is almost finished as well A close up to the southern 'net' elevation

Photos taken on 21st of June 2011:

An unusual 'net' covering the building As we can see, the 'net' is not completely regular From the outside the buildidng looks as if it was completed, but interiors are still being finished A contrast of architecture's quality of both buildings can be seen immediately What is interesting is the fact, that both buildings were completed by two competing developers A view from the western side A view from the close From this view a characteristic bend of the building is clearly visible