Demolish Poland's Palace of Culture?

An online Rzepa survey on what to do about the Stalinesque 'wedding cake' known as the Pałac Kultury (nicknamed Pajac Kultury), the Warsaw cityscape's long-standing eyesore, has shown that 351 want it demolished, 522 want it to be left alone and 282 feel its entourage should be changed (built round) to make it less obvious. What's your take on this?

Nic, zostawić tak, jak jest (Głosy:522)
Budynku nie ruszać, ale zmienić jego otoczenie, żeby tak nie rzucał się w oczy (Głosy:282)
Zburzyć (Głosy:351)

Obsessing about the Palace of Culture = living in the past.

It's part of the history of Warsaw for good and ill and should not be demolished (a daft idea proposed by silly people who want to erase the past rather than figure out how to live with and learn from it).

Personally I'm kind of fond of it in an ugly pet kind of way.

Very much so.

people do like talking about it, and I'm please that most want it to stay. It's an iconic landmark, and a symbol more of post-war reconstruction as much as anything else. More than 50 people died during its construction, and the building is still used a lot.


Spot on.

Indeed. Most people that want to tear it down don't use it.

I think it's only a shame that it's not used as a genuine Palace of Culture these days.

The current plan is to build skyscrapers around in order to hide it.

There are a couple of theatres as well as all the concerts in the Sala Kongresowa. Plus the Palace of Youth in the North-West corner. Collegium Civitas uses quite a bit of the building too.

It's really very well used.

I lived in Warsaw for donkey's years (from the early seventies onwards) and I have never, ever heard anyone refer to it that way. The only "nickname" I can recall is Pekin - from PKiN (Pałac Kultury i Nauki). Everyone used to call it that, then sometime in the nineties the name became less popular for some reason.

Like much of what Polonius claims, he invented it himself.

Maybe because Pekin (Beijing) is cool now ;)

I think it looks pretty cool, would be a shame to destroy it.

I also think so, anyway I've read somewhere that it's under monuments protection because of it's age, or will be in few years.

That's been the plan for at least the last decade and a half. I really hope (and pretty much expect) that nothing will come of those plans, I very much like the Palace of Culture, every time I see it appearing on the horizon I know I'm nearly home.

There has been many plans to build something (not only sacysrapers) around the Palace of Culture and I 'm sure there will be a lot more in the coming years with no real development taking place.

It is worth noting that the Russian architect Rudniev had originally planned it to be much less higher. These were the Polish comrades of the former Communist party who had it built as high as it is now.

It is also worth noting that the idea of such a building in Warsaw followed the idea of Moscow's buildings of the same kind (of whom there are seven, if I'm not mistaken) which in turn were inspired by New York's skyscrapers. Plus the architecture of the Palace has been inspired by some elements of Polish architecture. We may then say that the Palace of Culture is in a way as Polish as it is Russian and American.

Besides of this, the clock on top is very practical :)
But Plac Defilad is a disgrace and something should be done about that.

I like the way it stands out on the horizon while flying in to WAW. I think it would be a shame to get rid of it or attempt to understate it. So many good things could be derived from it in it's current form if it was to be used as an iconic / historic structure.

dumb idea


agree!

In a sense, it is as Iconic to Warsaw as is the Chrysler building in New York, architecturally speaking.

If you're going to keep any monuments to the communist era (and I think we should), I think pekin is a excellent one to keep.

It has an interesting architecture, it is being utilized, and there are sufficient numbers of skyscrapers all around to pay homage to the current era already.

well, let Poles (who live in Poland) decide it. They have to live with their past and they need to know what's good for them and what's not. If I lived in Poland back then (1945-1989), I'd most likely hate it too.

Hmmm.... after Piskorski installed a clock faces on it - i like it more. I'm living on Żelazna street so I could see it from my window

I did. And I hate it. It must be at least changed on the outside and the top taken off. It will happen sooner later than later.

There are great many historical buildings, monuments, pyramids and walls that were built during the time of oppression. If we destroyed all the reminders of the bad times, we'd have no history left to see.

After World War One, a huge Russian Orthodox Church in Warsaw, regarded as an symbol of 123 years of alien tsarist domination over Catholic Poland, was dismantlred brick by brick until not a trace of it remained.

Sickening, and not very Christian. Any catholic involved should have felt deeply ashamed.

Here is an update on Rzepa's ongoing survey:

Nic, zostawić tak, jak jest (Głosy:851)
Budynku nie ruszać, ale zmienić jego otoczenie, żeby tak nie rzucał się w oczy (Głosy:447)
Zburzyć (Głosy:573)
Nie obchodzi mnie to (Głosy:115)
Nie wiem, o co chodzi (Głosy:59)

Except it won't, because a clear plurality of people are against touching it.


Yes, a very Christian to do - destroying others places of worship. It wasn't the only case as well, as Orthodox churches were destroyed throughout Poland then - and yet another black mark in the history of the II RP.

You seriously implying that this church was just that, a church? There was no partition of Poland, there was no ethnic cleansing of Poles, they were not forced to serve in occupier armed forces for 30 years, there was no persecution against Catholic Church, nothing like this happened, right? Only some orthodox people came to Warsaw and built a place of worship for themselves and fascist Poles destroyed it.

Do you think we are all that stupid?

I'm telling you that destroying a fellow Christian church in the name of petty nationalism is pathetic and that anyone that took part in it should have been ashamed.


What has that got to do with the destruction of a place of worship?


It's pretty fascist to destroy religious structures that you don't agree with, yes.


The II RP was littered with stupid acts. What's new?

If your definition of good is whatever suits you, and bad is whatever doesn't, then it has nothing to do with it.
Anyway, I think you agree it's pointless to talk.

My definition of bad is the wilful destruction of places of worship for nationalistic reasons.