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Friday, February 7, 2025

Warsaw. Renovation of the building of BGK Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. Delay and costs

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The renovation of the BGK headquarters is being extended

Source: tvnwarszawa.pl

Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego signed an annex to the contract for the renovation of its historic headquarters in the center of Warsaw. The contractor will receive PLN 599 million. If everything goes according to the new plan, the work will be completed in 2027, i.e. with a three-year delay.

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The building of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego was built at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s at the corner of Aleje Jerozolimskie and Nowy Świat. It is the work of architect Rudolf Świerczyński and is considered one of the best implementations of the Warsaw school of architecture.

The bankers wanted the interior of the building to regain its former glory for the 100th anniversary of the bank's establishment, which fell in 2024. Preparations started in 2020. Two years later, a contract was signed with Doraco, which started work in 2023. Along Aleje Jerozolimskie, construction workers placed up to four storeys of containers, which took up the sidewalk and parking spaces. There is also a large crane operating above the building. The construction base will not disappear quickly because the investment has a long delay.

BGK reconstruction facilities in Aleje Jerozolimskie

BGK reconstruction facilities in Aleje Jerozolimskie

Source: tvnwarszawa.pl

Poor technical condition of the ceilings

They were confirmed by an audit commissioned by the bank's new authorities (they changed after the parliamentary elections). The culprit for the delay turned out to be… the building itself, and more specifically, the technical condition of the pre-war structure.

– The poor technical condition of the building's structure was discovered by the general contractor only after the work had started. The historic box ceilings turned out to be in poor technical condition. It was necessary to perform a technical assessment of selected structural elements. According to the recommendations, existing ceilings, including historic box ceilings, must be repaired, strengthened or replaced – explains MichaÅ‚ Rżysko from the BGK press office.

– It is worth remembering that the investment concerns a building that has been in use since 1931. We carry out all work to preserve as many historic elements as possible. This requires much more commitment, financial outlays and time than in the case of modern buildings. In the scope of work, we take into account the historic character of the building and combine historical architecture with a modern and functional space arrangement. Since the entire building is under the protection of the conservator, all works carried out require his consent – explains the bank representative.

Reconstruction of the BGK building

We need to add almost PLN 600 million

Obtaining new administrative decisions (not only conservation decisions) delayed the entire process. That's why the investor and the contractor sat down at the table. On Monday, they signed an annex to the contract. – On January 20, 2025, the contract with the general contractor was annexed, in which the original investment schedule was updated and The completion date for construction works was set at September 30, 2027 – reveals MichaÅ‚ Rżysko. And it reminds that the value of the original contract with Doraco was PLN 477,859,557. – The value of the annexed contract is PLN 599,084,410 gross – Rżysko enumerates. For comparison. The Museum of Modern Art, which is considered very expensive, was built over a metro tunnel and cost PLN 640 million. The capital spent PLN 154 million on the footbridge over the Vistula River.

– The significant increase in reconstruction costs results primarily from the need to carry out work based on replacement design documentation, including repairs, strengthening and replacement of parts of the historic building structure – argues an employee of BGK. The investor is convinced that Doraco will complete the construction, therefore “it does not plan to look for a new general contractor for this scope of work.”

Restore the monumentality of the ground floor

The BGK building was built in 1928-1931. The design of Rudolf ÅšwierczyÅ„ski, one of the founders of the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology, is described as “classicizing modernism”. Simplicity and functionality were said to be the result of LeCorbusier's influence, and the stepped composition of the top floors was inspired by New York's skyscrapers. Inside, the marble and alabaster finish was stunning.

The office building survived the bombing of Warsaw in 1939 and the fighting of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, although it cannot be ruled out that it was the old destruction that made itself felt eight decades later. The building was not blown up because the Germans stayed there until the end of the war.

The modernization project was created by the JEMS Architekci studio. “It preserves all the existing, valuable elements of the equipment and decor. It restores the lost splendor of the monumental interiors of the ground floor. First of all, their continuity, the sequence of three main operating rooms and the entrance hall articulated through the unique tectonics of column partitions, light management, stone details, multi-colored stucco” – they write about with his Jemsi project.

For the duration of the reconstruction, bankers moved to one of the towers of the Varso complex, near the Central Station.

View of the eastern operating room, 1931.

View of the eastern operating room, 1931.

Source: Visualization JEMS Architekci / BGK



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