Ufficio Primo

„A jewel in Poland’s post-war architecture, now for a number of years restored to its former glory due to renovation. It is still one of the best locations in the Warsaw city centre, as a venue for business meetings, concerts, and other events. In this year alone, it played host to prestigious events like the Journalist Charity Ball and Gwiazdy Plejady Grand Gala. It attracts, but also continues to astound.”

„The building at Wspólna 62, designed by Marek Leykam, is one of the most unusual buildings to be constructed in the times of the Polish People’s Republic. The building has a magnificent dome with several dozen portholes. Under the dome, stretching over six floors, is a circular atrium with galleries. Although the building was built in 1952 to house the Government Presidium, it resembles the palace of a merchant of Florence more than a socialist realism building.”

„From the outside, it resembles the Palazzo Strozzi or Palazzo Malenchini in Florence, the seats of wealthy and prominent merchant dynasties, for which funding was found in the quattrocento era. The interior is astounding: a courtyard surrounded by six levels of colonnades, irresistibly reminiscent of the galleries at the Wawel, and closing with a modernist-style dome with symmetrically dispersed skylights. An atrium as if from Queen Bona’s times, and a roof that looks as if it comes from a mid-twentieth-century science fiction movie, a cross between historicism and futurism – a monumental dwelling.”