Only ten years old is a Poznan shopping center slated for demolition. Galeria Dębiec is to go under the pick. This is yet another - after the huge Galeria Malta - center that will disappear from the face of the earth. Such are the consequences of the senseless actions of decision-makers of previous decades. Will today's authorities learn anything from this?
"Opening soon" - inscriptions of this and similar content are increasingly hiding the emptiness behind the windows of closed premises of Poznań shopping centers. Only that "soon" often means a date longer than a year. The word "opening" should sometimes be read as "demolition." This is what happened to the sizable Malta Gallery, whose spectacular demolition is now coming to an end more than a year after work began (we wrote about it a year ago in the text "Demolish, build, plan..."; we showed photos of the gallery before demolition in 2023). From the side of Lake Malta you can still see almost the entire facade, but behind its screen stretches a field of rubble selected before disposal.
Demolition of Galeria Malta in Poznań, December 2024 - view of the dismantled facade from the side of Lake Malta, selection of building materials
photo: Jakub Głaz
Malta - one of the city's most architecturally decent shopping centers - was less than fifteen years old when it closed . Measuring more than 160 square meters in total area, the building designed by the APA Wojciechowski studio (with the participation of the Ewa and Stanislaw Sipinski Architectural Studio) was in good technical condition and decently maintained. However, it did not withstand competition. Its liquidation was determined by the neighborhood of the Posnania Gallery - the largest in the city, built next door a decade ago (why such a bizarre proximity of the two establishments is reminded, as a warning, at the end of the text).
Demolition of Galeria Malta in Poznań, December 2024 - view from Maltańska Street of the remains of the main entrance and lobby
photo: Jakub Głaz
Now an even younger (but also more modest: about 20,000 sq m) shopping center is to go under the pick: the ten-year-old (!) Galeria Dębiec. It took its name from its location - a residential neighborhood developed since the 1950s with housing estates for workers of the Cegielski metal works (HCP). Permits for demolition of the building were applied for late last year by the owner , AMP Real Estate Development. The interior of the shopping center is today occupied by tenants to a small extent. Customers are mainly attracted by a popular chain store located at the end of an internal shopping alley.
Galeria Dębiec in Poznań - view from 28 Czerwca Street, next to it - the skyscraper of the Red Park housing development.
photo: Jakub Glaz
no plan, no plans known
Unlike Malta, there is no question of over-the-top architecture here. The building is simple, two-story and has a utilitarian form designed by the Poznań-based Archikwadrat studio. It opened in late 2014 on the southern section of 28 Czerwca 1956 Street - at the very end of the boom for new shopping centers in the city, which lasted about two decades. The mall was intended to form a functional whole with the residential high-rises of the Red Park development being built next door (proj.: also Archikwadrat, the latter was completed in 2020). The complex stood in a strip of land between the street and the railroad tracks to Wroclaw, previously occupied primarily by manufacturing and food plants (some are still operating).
Galeria Dębiec in Poznań - general view through 28 Czerwca 1956 Street.
photo: Jakub Glaz
The mall was built despite the fact that quite a number of stores and service outlets for Dębiec neighborhoods were operating in close proximity, including a dilapidated shopping complex from the 1970s and a slowly degrading local market - both 350 meters away from the new facility. Paradoxically, such proximity made it possible to build a shopping mall. This is because there was and still is no local zoning plan for the area . Work on its development has not even begun. The "good neighborhood" helped.
A shopping pavilion next to the market square 300 meters from Galeria Dębiec
Photo: Jakub Głaz
What now? A decision on the demolition permit should be made by the magistrate in days. However, it is not known what the owner's further plans are. One can only assume that he is thinking of building more multi-family houses. If this is the case, it is possible that the residential high-rises will be joined by other buildings of this scale (both by reference to the neighboring Dębina estate from the 1980s and the Red Park complex itself).
Dębina estate from the 1980s, opposite the Gallery, view from the parking lot of Galeria Dębiec across June 28, 1956 street; on the left - a block of flats from the late 1960s and early 1970s (belonging to the older Dębec estate)
photo: Jakub Głaz
on Malta brighter
Will this be a good move? The residential function seems to be in place, but the similar height of the new houses may spoil the quite successful spatial effect produced by the composition of the four decently designed point-blocks. The area is, however, relatively attractive: within the city limits, close to green areas, services and schools, at a reasonable distance from the center (about 5 km), quite efficiently served by public transport (in prospect is the extension of the streetcar line, the loop of which is a kilometer away and behind the railroad crossing). Thus, the lack of a local plan for the area and work on it should be considered quite a negligence of municipal decision-makers.
New residential development on June 28, 1956 street.
photo: Jakub Głaz
On the other hand, the situation is clearer in the case of Galeria Malta. Here, from the beginning, the owner announced the replacement of retail with residential and office development. To this end, first planners and councilors introduced an amendment during the last update of the Study of Conditions and Directions of Spatial Development, and then they got down to modifying the current local plan, which does not provide for apartments in this place. Work on the new plan is underway.
Demolition of Galeria Malta in Poznań, December 2024 - view of the former main entrance from the side of Lake Malta; on the right in front, bay windows of the functioning office building on Baraniaka Street
photo: Jakub Głaz
What level of architecture awaits us ? The owner of the site has so far not shown even vague concepts of the new development. One thing is certain , however - the residential houses will stand in a very attractive place: on the eastern edge of the very center, with views of Lake Maltese and the panorama of downtown and Ostrow Tumski. Next to it is the campus of Poznan University of Technology, and behind it is the Warta River and its relief canal, over which the Berdych Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridges are now being built. Already this spring, they will connect the Malta River area with the Old Town in a very convenient way (in a straight line it is less than two kilometers to City Hall).
The closer, the worse
Such a good location is an advantage for the investor, but for the urban space - not necessarily. Experience in recent years shows that in Poznań, areas close to the center are being developed with residential housing of average quality at best. Developers make up for the high price of land in this way, and know that in a good location almost anything will sell or rent (the neighboring new development on Maltańska Street is proof of this).
Demolition of Galeria Malta in Poznan, December 2024 - Maltanska Street, on the left - remains of the shopping center, on the right - new developer development
photo: Jakub Głaz
Planners and their principals in the magistrate should therefore rise to the occasion and draw up the plan in such a way that it forces high-quality solutions. After all, the second time this prized area on the Dalmatian coast should not fall victim to bad decisions. Such as the one that councilors made at the beginning of this century, allowing the location of two large-format shopping centers next to each other (supposedly there would be a "synergy effect" between them ). However, the decision-makers were deaf to the voices of criticism and did everything to saturate Poznań with as many square meters of commerce as possible. The call for sensible action needs to resound, because due to the authorities' inaction, buildings that are contrary to the character of the place are now being erected next to Lake Malta (we wrote about this, among other things, in December 2023).
Galeria Dębiec in Poznań - view of the entrance from the second floor of the mall
photo: Jakub Głaz
This harmful excess is disappearing today, and that's a good thing, although there is an absurd situation where buildings in very good condition are being demolished. Some of the land occupied by commercial halls and facilities the Study allocates, among other things, for residential housing (such as the former TESCO in the Piatkowo district). This is a good move in the case of low-quality shopping centers of the so-called first generation from the 1990s, known as "tin halls" due to their lightweight construction and shoddy appearance. However, demolishing a technically efficient, giant reinforced concrete building 15 years after it opened is an exceptional waste of power and resources. Nowadays, when there is loud talk about the adverse impact of building on the environment and the flexibility of architecture , demolishing (rather than rebuilding) solidly built very young buildings is simply cursory.