#DemolitionInPoland
The monumental railroad station building in Slupsk has already been demolished in April 2024. Now its neighbor - a five-story modernist office building on Kollataja Street - will also follow in its footsteps.
Following the construction contract, a decision was also made to demolish an office building near the new station. Currently, the office building houses, among other things, a temporary station
- reported Agnieszka Jurewicz from the communications office of the Polish State Railways.
Slupsk, railroad station
Photo: Tomasz Górny © CC BY SA 3.0 PL | Wikimedia Commons
Slupsk, with a population of over 89,000, is the third largest city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship (after Gdansk and Gdynia, according to CSO data as of June 30, 2021). Its main (and only) railroad station is a provincial category station and is located in the western part of the city center, on Hugo Kołłątaja Street.
From the intersection with Aleje 3 Maja, this street is characterized by loose development - commercial buildings stand there, separated from the road by extensive parking lots. Only behind the train station building does the development thicken. Its opposite side, on the other hand, is closely built up - the frontage is mainly formed by three- or four-story, pre-war tenement houses with eclectic facades. The station itself is now shielded by steel barriers - the existing station building was demolished in April 2024, and construction of a new one is underway.
Slupsk, view of the station from Wojska Polskiego Street
Photo: Antekbojar © CC BY SA 1.0 PL | Wikimedia Commons
every three stations is not one
The authorities announced the changes at the city's main train station back in 2018, after Slupsk received more than 3.6 million zlotys in 2017 from EU funds to modernize the transport hub.
Slupsk's railroad junction is being renovated as part of the investment to modernize railroad line 202 from Gdansk Main to Stargard. The modernization, worth more than PLN 1.8 billion, is subsidized by EU funds - the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program and the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment Program.
The total cost of the modernization of the Slupsk railroad junction is expected to be up to PLN 562 million. In September this year, platforms 3 and 4 were put into service - their level in relation to the trackbed was significantly raised. The station was equipped with new benches, information showcases, signage and energy-efficient lighting.
In place of the current building, a smaller station will be built, with an area of about a third of today's. There will be three floors, with an entrance directly from Kollataja Street. The change will also be that the building will be moved away from the tracks and platforms
- was announced in 2018 by Marek Biernacki, then vice-president of Slupsk.
The first modernization concepts assumed that the facade of the new station would refer to its original, which was built on the same site in 1869. It was the first station building in the city. The railroad came to Slupsk from Koszalin - it became the next stop on the Berlin-Gdansk route.
Postcard, Gruss aus Stolp i. Pom. Bahnhof - railroad station in Slupsk.
Władysław Piotrowicz, Baltic Public Library
The station was equipped with a grand building; there were ticket offices, waiting rooms and a restaurant, and there were also facilities for railroad employees. Like many stations of the so-called first generation, built in Germany in the 19th century, the Slupsk station bore features of the round-arched style (German: Rundbogenstil). Its brick facade was rhythmically divided by arcaded window openings. The wings of the building with more stories were crowned by a hipped roof, from the corners of which rose clock towers.
In 1945, the right half of the building burned down in a bombing. The part that remained functioned until 1974, when the decision was made to demolish it. A temporary station operated until 1990 before another was erected.
Interestingly, the replacement station building is still in use today as a furniture store and driver training center.
- recalls journalist Ireneusz Wojtkiewicz in the pages of Głos Pomorza.
railroad to travel back in time
After three years of construction, a new building with a volume of 34,000 cubic meters and a distinctive facade with rhythmic bay windows two stories high opened at the Slupsk station.
Slupsk, railroad station
Photo: Tomasz Górny © CC BY SA 3.0 PL | Wikimedia Commons
The main designer of the new station was Krystyna Prądzyńska-Cierniak, Master of Architecture and daughter of the first post-war stationmaster of the Słupsk Railway Station, Józef Prądzyński.
Next to the station building was a six-story office building with commercial and service functions. Together the buildings formed an L-shaped urban layout. A strip of greenery and a parking lot accommodating two rows of cars separated the buildings from Kołłątaja Street.
The spacious station building, in addition to the ticket offices and waiting room, also housed commercial outlets such as a kiosk and a café. However, the interior was overwhelmed by the vast, empty hall. The premises on the first floor of the station, whose entrances led from the outside, often changed hands - there was a PKO bank, a bar, travel agencies and a beauty salon. A children's playroom "Planeta" operated on the first floor, and earlier also a travel agency "Wodnik" and a photocopy shop.
The lobby of the railroad station in Slupsk
Photo: Tommy Jantarek © CC BY SA 4.0 PL | Wikimedia Commons
The rich commercial offer of the station was not enough to arouse the sympathy of Slupsk residents. In 2015, the website sightseers.info.pl reported on a survey of residents.
Nearly 90 percent of those who took part in the survey by Głos Pomorza said that the station looked as if it had stopped in a bygone era. I share their opinion
- wrote Zuzanna Grabska, author of the Open Land Guide.
The building had not completed its thirtieth year of operation when it was scheduled for demolition. The 1991 station has now proven to be unprofitable to maintain, too large in relation to the real demand of the passengers using it.
The current station is too large and far out of keeping with its historic surroundings. We were presented with a bold proposal to demolish the station. We discussed the idea of constructing an underpass under the tracks (an investment long awaited in Slupsk - editor's note), locating ticket offices and waiting rooms in a new or completely modernized building, and putting commercial space above ground. I would very much like the concept of rebuilding the old station in its pre-war shape
- Marek Biernacki said back in 2015, when PKP submitted a proposal to build a new facility.
The tender for the demolition of the station and construction of the new building was announced in 2023. At the time, it was assumed that the neighboring office building would not be demolished, but renovated, and its surroundings redeveloped. At the time, there were no plans to demolish the office building next to the station. In the visualizations, the office building fits in with the premise, and its facade seems to be consistent with that of the station.
The new railway station in Slupsk - visualization
© Study
In 2018, the vice mayor of Slupsk announced:
We have such an assurance, and we sensitized PKP to this, that such are first of all the expectations of the residents, that it should not be a typical modular building, but a structure that takes into account the surrounding Art Nouveau buildings. We received the answer that PKP will do its best to make it an interesting object
Nevertheless, the visualizations, as well as the construction that is being built before our eyes, show that Slupsk will have a station completely different from the previous ones in this location. Unfortunately, according to local residents, not at all different from the train stations that have been built across the country in recent years.
as many stations, as many opinions
The authors of the design of the newest, or third (or fourth, counting the temporary one operating in the 1980s) railway station in Slupsk are the Studium studio from Warsaw, which has also designed stations in neighboring Ustka and Chojnice. The body of the next one is formed by two trapezoidal parts located on two sides of the tunnel leading to the platforms. The designed building consists of three floors - one underground with a service outlet, as well as two aboveground - with a food court, passenger lobby, waiting room, play area and ticket offices. The top floor is to house office space and a conference room. The passenger space will feature finishing materials such as terrazzo, wood on the walls and a lamellar suspended ceiling.
The new railway station in Slupsk - visualization
© Study
The building's facade will be covered with brick-colored, matte and glossy ceramic panels arranged in alternating patterns. Vertical fixtures on the facade emphasize the divisions of the block and its cubist form. At night, the lighting is to highlight the walkway leading toward the platforms.
The project's authors emphasize accessibility solutions. The new station is to be equipped with guided paths, Braille signage and tactile maps. The surrounding area and the station itself are to be designed to allow wheelchair users to move freely.
The new railway station in Slupsk - visualization
© Study
Accessibility and precological solutions (and the investor has also taken care of these), however, are not able to alleviate the reluctance of Slupsk residents towards the project. In March 2023, the first visualizations of the project selected for implementation were published by the Slupsk Nasze Miasto portal, and a vote was held "Do you like the visualizations of the new railway station in Slupsk?". More than 1,500 people took part in the survey, 86% of whom answered "no."
This new train station is a drama - it's a bunker! Have you seen the windows?
- responds a respondent in a report by Radio Gdansk.
There was even an alternative, grassroots design for a new train station - created by members of the Facebook group "History of Slupsk." In their vision, the building referred directly to the first 19th century railway station in Slupsk.
Internet users' comments accuse the project of being inconsistent with the context of its surroundings, as well as similar to other projects completed in recent years, such as Lodz Kaliska with a similar, simple body and glossy facade.
The demolition of the office building next to the station, however, does not raise too many doubts - Słupsk residents support the decision, and some even see it as a hope to improve the image of the railroad station under construction.
