SARP Coastal Branch

"President of the branch in the 2019-2023 term: Pawel Vlad. Kowalski
The roots of the Wybrzeże Branch of SARP in Gdansk are in Gdynia. In late 1928/1929, Polish architects founded the Gdynia Wybrzeże Branch.

The first president of the Coast Branch was, until 1936, col. arch. Tadeusz Jędrzejewski. The terms of office were then established as one-year terms. In 1936 the president was elected kol. arch. Stanislaw Filipkowski. In 1937 again kol. arch. Tadeusz Jędrzejewski. From 1938 until the outbreak of World War II, the chairman was kol. Włodzimierz Prochaska.

During the interwar period, in the then Free City of Gdansk, created on the basis of the Treaty of Versailles signed on June 28, 1919, the administration of the normal railroad (160 km) was given to Poland. Posts of the Polish Post Office were also established in the Free City. Polish architects had opportunities to work within the framework of these two organizations. The names of 69 architecture students, Poles studying at the Gdansk University of Technology at the time, are also known. World War II and the occupation of 1939-1945 annihilated all Polish associational activity on the Gdansk Coast.

SARP was reborn in Gdansk in 1946, with the election of the Wybrzeże Branch of the Association of Architects of the Republic of Poland in Gdansk on January 22, 1947. (In 1952, at the Sixth General Meeting of Delegates of SARP, the name was changed to the Association of Polish Architects, retaining the traditional acronym SARP. This is the name the association carries to this day). Since then, we have recorded 30 terms of the Branch's work; these have occurred since 1966 at a three-year rhythm, and since 2015 at a four-year rhythm.

SARP brings together in its structures most of the active architects, and one could say, with few exceptions, all those who have ambitions and interests broader than their own drawing board and their own computer, which, by the way, is essential in our profession for the creative and substantive development of each individual. Nationally, we have about 6,000 architects in our ranks, while our Coast Branch has more than 400 members. The objectives of our Association are defined in the statute in 6 points.

1. to influence all fields of architectural creativity and activity shaping space for people.
2. to constantly raise the humanistic, artistic and technical level of design works of Polish architecture.
3. protection of copyrights.
4. ensuring proper conditions for the practice of the profession.
5. care and observance of professional ethics.
6. self-help of colleagues.

The existence of the Wybrzeże Branch of SARP is inextricably linked with our headquarters at 27 Targ Węglowy Street in Gdansk. A bronze plaque in the lobby of the building informs:

"The Mansion of the St. George's Hound Fraternity was built between 1487 and 1494, and after a fire in 1945 it was rebuilt between 1956 and 1962 as the headquarters of the Association of Polish Architects with the foundation of SFOS, SARP, and the Conservator of Monuments.

We are convinced that thanks to the activities of fellow architects who came to Gdansk as early as 1945, who took care of the ruins of the mansion, designed its reconstruction, conducted painstaking restoration work, we can perform our statutory service to the society of the Gdansk Coast region for more than 60 years as a non-governmental organization."