Lifting by Siemens
Despite the crisis, the famous building at 96 Piotrkowska Street is going to be refurbished.
The building at Piotrkowska 96, the past headquarters of Siemens and Łódź editorial offices, is going to regain its past glamour. The façade will be decorated by the reproductions of stylish lamps and other ornamental elements, and the courtyard will be covered by a glass roof. The investor has reassured that despite the crisis, the construction works should start soon.
‘We have already got the building permit and currently we are choosing a building contractor. The renovation works will start in May or June this year and will have been completed by 2010’, says Damian Witczak, the representative of Verity Development, the Wrocław-based company. ‘Apart from apartments and offices designed in the building, there will be retail spaces located on the groudfloor and in the basement.’
The building was built before the 1st World War in a modernistic style. Such massive tenements constructed in that period can be found in Berlin, so it is no wonder that Siemens with its German origin wished to have a similar building in Lodz. The building was placed on the plot ever belonging to Samuel Czamański, the manufacturer of ribbon. During the interwar period the tenement was housing Bank Przemysłowo-Handlowy and the famous delicatessen of the Ichnatowicz brothers.
‘This is one of the most magnificent buildings at Piotrkowska Street’, emphasizes Bartosz Walczak from the Voivodship Office for Protection of Monuments. ‘On one of the floors one can see the original office interiors that have been preserved.’
In the communistic time, the tenement served as the premises of local editorials such as Dziennik Łódzki, Express Ilustrowany, Głos Robotniczy, Karuzela, and the Journalits’ Club. In the 90-ies the tenement was housing a lot of companies. The building wasn’t renovated and its state was worsening with time. The municipality wanted to sell the building on the auction, however this ended in fiasco. Next the mining and power holding – BOT wanted to take over the building but finally resigned. In the end the building was purchased at 16 mln PLN by the Wroclaw-based company.
Among the two parks Źródliska I and II the same investor plans also to renovate the monumental Scheibler’s heritage from the 19th century. ‘We are in the design phase and soon an application for the building permit will be submitted’, claims Damian Witczak. ‘The two existing buildings will be refurbished and adapted for retail spaces. In addition, we will build two new apartment buildings on the site.’
Wiesław Pierzchała
2009-02-20, Dziennik Łódzki