Wroclaw does not cease to surprise. Another architectural premiere after the new building on Wolnosci Square is the hotel building, which was built on the site of the former WROBIS office building at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego streets. The architectural "chimera" recently unveiled its facades. How did the marriage of old and new turn out, and did it actually manage to preserve what was protected by the provisions of the Local Plan?
We wrote about the intricate history of the new building, which is being constructed on a corner lot at the intersection of Szewska Street and King Casimir the Great Street in Wroclaw as recently as last year. At that time, the construction of the hotel was still in its early stages, but even then emotions were aroused by the way in which the "protection" of the office building of the Osiedle Society (now Wrocławskie Przedsiębiorstwo Budownictwa Przemysłowego WROBIS), built in 1938, located on the plot under development, was being carried out.
A new building in place of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego streets in Wroclaw
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
specific protection
The investor in this case is Wrocław-based OTIS Investment, while the architectural concept was prepared by Wojciech Blaszczuk's WBDS Poland studio. Conditions for the investment were special - according to the Local Spatial Development Plan for the area of Market Square and Plac Solny, the pre-war WROBIS building should be subject to conservation protection (it was included in the Communal Register of Historic Monuments), and when supplementing the development it was obliged to "preserve the decor of the facade of the entrance part including the portal."
New building in place of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego streets in Wroclaw
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
In the case of the building at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego Streets, the mentioned protection was understood in a rather specific way. As a result of detected structural defects, the historic fabric of the building was subjected to demolition, while the front elevation of the former WROBIS building, protected according to the provisions of the Local Land Use Plan, was... reconstructed, and then superstructed with a new block with the number of floors equal to the height of the neighboring Szewska Centrum building.
The new building in place of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego streets in Wroclaw.
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
A match with the preservationist
How do the guidelines of the Local Land Use Plan regarding the preservation of the WROBIS building compare to the condition that the new-old hotel building in Wroclaw presents at this moment. That the structure of the facade on the side of Szewska Street has been rebuilt in reinforced concrete technique we already know. As the most important elements that should be preserved, the MPZP listed the front elevation's decoration, which includes architectural details and the column portico located on the side of Kazimierza Wielkiego street. Already the first look at the new building allows one to see that the ground floor of the reconstructed façade has returned stone bonia. Point for Otis Investment.
The new building at the site of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego Streets in Wroclaw.
Photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
wrocław official loses his head
The sculptural detail has also returned , in the form of a corner relief depicting two figures (a clerk and a builder) jointly supporting a schematic model of an interwar tenement house. In this case, the conventional "points" are not quite due. Indeed, the sculpture is original, but somewhat defaced, because during the dismantling and transfer to the new facade, the figure of the clerk lost.... head. It should also be added that the bas-relief, designed as a corner, is now located approximately 2/3 of the length of the new facade, at the junction of the reconstructed wall of WROBIS and the tracts added to it.
The new building at the site of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego Streets in Wrocław
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
imagination is the basis
Here the designers' interpretation was rather free, but also, to say the least, quite imaginative. The two columns supporting the historic portico of the WROBIS building were multiplied and incorporated into the new volume, which "grew" around the outline of the former office building. Although the first floor on the south side is still unfinished, one can suspect that the now-defunct portico will become part of the glazed first floor. Has the requirement in the Local Development Plan been fulfilled? As much as possible. And the forms of the portico of the former WROBIS building cannot necessarily be recognized in the current building.
The new building in place of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego Streets in Wroclaw.
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
as in a mirror image
And what do the new parts of the building look like? These were apparently designed as a response to the buildings standing in the immediate vicinity. The facade on the west side is finished with graphite panels, presumably to correspond with the dark glazing of the striking apse in the Szewska Centrum building. However, reconciling this element with the reconstructed WROBIS facade, which is after all the lion's share of the west elevation, was probably impossible by design. It is worth adding, however, that while the window openings themselves are nowhere near the proportions of the historic partitions, the basic rhythm of the horizontal divisions has been roughly preserved.
The new building in place of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego Streets in Wrocław
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
The expression of the southern wall was again consulted with the Szewska Center's massing, this time opting for light-colored stone façade panels, alluding to the concrete panels covering the walls of the expressive tower of the iconic Stefan Müller parking lot. Puzzling is the place where the south facade meets the west wall. The slopes have completely different architectural expressions, and the designers decided not to merge them ruthlessly - the facade on the Kazimierz Wielki side wraps around and protrudes slightly beyond the basic outline of the building's body. With a good dose of good intentions, one can recognize in this procedure a reference to the way Erich Mendelsohn solved the facade of the nearby Chameleon. Both the resemblance and the location, however, are relatively distant in this case.
A new building on the site of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego Streets in Wroclaw.
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
superstructures in Wroclaw
This is not the first Wrocław building whose facades were solved in the same way. A similar procedure was carried out by MAJOR Architects when designing one of the Drobner Boulevard buildings on Nadodrze at 5-7 Drobnera St. There, the architects incorporated the facade and tract of a former 19th-century elementary school, built of brick in a typical eclectic style of the time , into the body of the new apartment building . As in the case of the Otis Investments Hotel on Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego streets, additional floors have also appeared above the historic block. The difference, however, is that in the case of the buildings on Drobnera Street, the historic substance was preserved. The entire facade of the WROBIS office building did not suffer a similar fate.
A new building in place of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego Streets in Wroclaw.
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
The architect's fault?
The OTIS Investment building, which was constructed at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego streets, is unlikely to be a pearl of architecture. So what went wrong and who is to blame for the situation? Intuition tells us that the studio behind the building's concept is to be blamed first and foremost for the way the plot in the center of Wroclaw was developed. It turns out, however, that Wojciech Blaszczuk's team had their hands largely tied and moved within the existing legal conditions.
The new building at the site of WROBIS at the intersection of Szewska and Kazimierza Wielkiego Streets in Wroclaw.
photo: Jesús Ramírez Fernández
architectural chimera
According to the provisions of the Local Spatial Development Plan for the area of the Old Town and Plac Solny, the office building, located in the Municipal Register of Monuments, was subject to protection. At the same time, the said Local Development Plan allows the construction of a building with a significantly larger outline and an increased number of floors on the plot. While back in 2022, when the building permit was issued, the preservation of the historic elements of the WROBIS office building might have seemed reasonable, at the moment when the original facade was demolished, its reconstruction and subsequent "housing" in its original form seems a solution without much sense. As a result of the provisions of an outdated local plan and misguided administrative and preservation decisions, the result is a building-chimera that combines three distinct architectural expressions. Could the development of the plot at 3 Szewska Street have been better designed? Perhaps. But can Wroclaw allow itself another failed building in the very center of the historic city? Here the answer is already unequivocally negative.
