Description of urban and architectural development conceptual design of the historical city centre of Gorzow Wlkp. “The pedestrianization of the historic city centre will advance new enterprise and development.”
pedestrian orientated city centre • pedestrianize the streets • divert traffic with ring road • add two bridges • renovate sidewalk and street paving system • store vehicles in parking garages (structured, underground, and residential courtyard infill) • replace tram with bus • celebrate the river • create green belt park • plant blades of grass
development opportunities • build new buildings • renovate and convert old buildings • renovate facades • embrace new business • create education and industry zones
Pedestrian Orientated Core The historical city centre, the jewel of the city, will be given back to the people, the pedestrians. The walk-ability of the core is essential to making the centre inviting, vibrant and usable again. The walk-able centre in conjunction with the Green Belt Park and the links to the Riverfront are purposeful. The live, work, and play aspects of the city will be in synch when this plan is implemented. Both office and residential will keep retail thriving. This mixed-use concept will also provide other opportunities for dining, culture and entertainment. The future Education + Industry Zones are mindfully set at opposite ends of the city centre to invite cross-town pedestrian traffic.
Ring Road and New Bridges The Ring Road facilitates improved traffic patterns to and around the historical city centre. It incorporates connections to newly built parking structures that reinforce pedestrian uses inside the centre. Giving the streets back to the pedestrian will allow retail, office, residential, and tourism uses to thrive. Two new bridges will be built, and the Staromiejski Bridge will function as a pedestrian bridge. To create a stronger image for the city, the tram system will be eliminated and a more extensive bus system will be implemented to serve pedestrians and tourists. The Ring Road literally and figuratively embraces the historical city centre and riverfront, two of the more intriguing aspects of the city of Gorzow Wielkopolski. The Green Belt Park continues along the bridges in the form of pedestrian walkways along side of the vehicular roads.
Traffic times through city will decrease which will signal to all users “this is a efficient and usable city! I want to do business here, I want to live here, study, work, travel…” High pedestrian activity will increase retail uses especially eateries, which will in turn increase residential and office occupancies on upper floors in new and renovated buildings. The improved residential and office occupancies will reciprocately induce more retail demand; this is a very important circular relationship. The Ring Road will decrease pollution in the centre. Local traffic for residents of the centre, deliveries and taxis will be allowed and monitored by electronic pass system. The Staromiejski Bridge will become a pedestrian bridge as part of the Ring Road concept. This will encourage pedestrian use on both sides of the river. The Ring Road requires the construction of two new modern bridges that can handle the actual traffic loads that the old Staromiejski Bridge cannot. The new bridges built as a vierendeel truss can accommodate future needs.
Renewed Paving System A new paving system will be installed throughout Gorzow Wlkp. that assists the pedestrian in safe passage and way-finding. It will provide the city of Gorzow Wlkp. long-term durability and flexibility with maintenance. The paver bricks will vary in texture and color depending if the area is a sidewalk, a slow road, or a fast road. The curbs will be modified depending on whether the adjacent area is designated for driving, parking, crossing or boarding buses. This new paving system will be altered graphically in various areas depending on retail, business and cultural needs. The colorization of the brick is in various natural tones of grays and whites. The incorporation of new brick paving, and the blades of grass as benches, lighting, signage, trash receptacles, bus-stops, bike-racks, etc is essential to the complete redesign and new street identity of Gorzow Wlkp.
Parking Garages Vehicles will be stored in three types of parking garages; new structured garages along new Ring Road (800 spaces), new structured garages in existing courtyard buildings (400 spaces), and in underground parking garages underneath new developments (3400 spaces). Cars can also be parked on secondary service roads throughout the city centre (2500 spaces). The new education and industry zones can provide additional parking (2700 spaces). A total of 9800 spaces throughout the city.
Bus replaces Tram The Tram will be replaced by a new bus system that will eventually be driven by natural gas, solar or hydrogen energies. Sound pollution will be greatly reduced. Safety will be increased exponentially by changing the way riders access the buses and keep users away from traffic. Unlike a tram, the buses will be using the street system blending into normal traffic flow, which will decrease accidents. The streets in the city centre will have much lower density due to the ring road, and therefore, bus route stop-to-stop times will be greatly optimized. Long-term costs (even including first cost of buses) will be reduced due to elimination of high-maintenance costs of trams and tram rail.
Green Belt Park and Riverfront City The new Green Belt Park is a linear connector of people, green pedestrian spaces, and the river. Key historic, cultural, entertainment, business, and sporting sites are all connected together by this new park. This is a very important literal message to the world about how green Gorzow Wlkp. really is. This is not an ecological branding exercise, but a real land plan transformed. The circular park ties together the existing Wiosny Ludow Park with the riverfront and provides a linear oasis along the way. The Green Belt Park continues across the river and tells the same story on both sides. Gorzow Wlkp. will embrace the riverfront and celebrate the Warta River. The new Green Belt Park always leads to the Warta River and becomes its destination.The Green Belt Park will filter and improve the air quality in the city centre acting like the lungs of the city. The new south riverside development of the city mirrors the concepts to the north in the historic city centre. It will organize the activities in and around the river to take advantage of this fantastic natural asset. Sporting, retail and entertainment activities will profit from the repositioning of the city to the river. A park-like path along the main Ring Road will also help with storm-water management by allowing water to naturally drain into the soil.
Blades of Grass The blades of grass are a system of street architecture. The blades of grass are sculpture. The blades of grass are an identity mechanism. They are colored green and built of steel and sculpturally depict the natural prairies of this part of Poland. They figuratively bend in the wind and point towards the river, and they become a way-finding system. They also can be a street light pole, a kiosk, a bench, a public restroom, a bus-stop, a signage and identity system, an observatory tower, and a retail shop. The design of the blades are based on the idea of “biophilia” which literally means “the love of life or living systems.” The blades are sustainable as they are each equipped with solar photovoltaic panels. These blades of grass plant the seed for the future in Gorzow Wlkp.People are attracted to the bio-philic blades of grass and have positive feelings toward certain habitats, activities, and objects in their natural surroundings. These blades are symbolic of nature and the new position of Gorzow Wlkp. as a leading city in redevelopment, sustainability and forward-thinking.
Development Opportunities Gorzow Wlkp. has an incredible opportunity to renovate existing historic buildings and to build new modern ones to provide over 450,000 square meters of new office and residential space. The plan provides for over 9,800 parking spaces. The Education + Industry Zone can provide an additional opportunity of 126,800 square meters. The planning of the new development will be to provide state of the art buildings, but in a fabric that provides interior and exterior spatial experiences that mimic the essence of the historic city core. Not architectural mimickry, but spatial sensitivity that understands the benefits of interiors bathed in natural light, and exteriors like courtyards and pedestrian boulevards that become places of culture and business. A smart landscaping system must be implemented throughout that lets the city breathe and ties into the surrounding Green Belt Park.
Education + Industry Zones Create two zones at the east and west sides of the historical city centre for the education and training of a workforce for the future. One that works directly with new industries that concentrate on forward-thinking businesses such as Bio-tech, Green-tech and Clean-tech, making a Gorzow Wielkopolski a creative enterprise center in Poland. The creation of a cooperative system of training and creating new products and technologies will provide new demand generators for the city. The educational aspect can be separate or in conjunction with the universities and schools of higher learning. Industry and education working hand in hand. Bio-tech is the research and development of new biological solutions in genetics, food science and medicine. Green-tech is the industry dealing with energy conservation and the sustainable way of living through new uses of energy and waste in the context of the environment. Clean-tech includes the renewable energy (wind power, solar power, biomass, hydropower, biofuels), information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, and many other things that are now more energy efficient. The location of these new uses are set at opposing ends of the city to ensure students and workers must pass through the city centre to spend money and activate and animate the historic city centre.
Façade Renovation The City of Gorzow Wlkp. will encourage and financially support the renovation of historically significant buildings and facades. Renovated buildings in the historic city centre without architectural merit will be built to an accepted city standard that controls material quality and building height, but not architectural style.
It has been a pleasure to be a part of the team headed by Zaha Hadid to build one of the two temporary pavilions for Chicago. It was commissioned by the Burnham Plan Centennial Committee to celebrate the centenary of 1909 Plan of Chicago (also known as the Burnham Plan) and will be open to the public this year from June 19th to October 31st in the South Chase Promenade of Millennium Park. My firm, Thomas Roszak Architecture, is acting as local architect of record.
What a treat to be involved in something that is all about doing supremely good architecture. It is about commodity, firmness and delight. Capital D.
Zaha Hadid and her team, headed by Thomas Vietzke and Jens Borstelmann, are not only architects; they are equally artists and scientists. They worry about all the things that architects worry about, but raised to a higher degree. The natural shapes are not arbitrary or purely artful, they are strict and serious and inspirational and insanely beautiful. The designs are based on complex curved shapes where the inclination of the curves are pure mathematics and not based on digitizing scraps of cardboard or clumps of clay. Every available point in space on the site is thoroughly analyzed…should it be part of the building or not. What color should that point in space be, what texture should it have, should light touch it?
What I find the most interesting is the conquest to do the right thing with the information that is known. For example, early on when we all agreed to change the concept of the structure and materials, Zaha and her team insisted to re-think and test all of the concepts all over again. They did not just side step and make some unenergetic adjustments. A completely new (and better) building was created. It was clearly better and it gave us all chills when we knew we are a part of something world-class and super-cool. Looking back it was all part of a natural plot trajectory that this pavilion had to go through to get built and be the great design that it is. Daniel Burnham would be proud.
In February, I teamed with Accelerated Marketing Partners (AMP) and announced a real estate auction for Vetro, which would be Chicago’s first-ever high-rise real estate auction. We, in partnership with AMP and Baird & Warner Residential, set out to sell 40 luxury residences at the March 7 auction for Vetro.
In an overwhelming response that determined market value for luxury homes in downtown Chicago, we sold 45 homes – five more than we anticipated – totaling more than $12 million of real estate sales in just under two hours. Moreover, we sold enough homes to qualify for FHA financing.
In less than one month since the auction, we have accepted 23 deals at these newly established price points.
See NBC's Marion Brooks exclusive coverage of the auction:
Banks have helped our related companies on our past development projects, and now it is time for us to help your bank. We can provide creative and effective workout solutions for special assets, and we can manage the entire process as part of your bank’s team.
TR Management, Inc, is a Real Estate Consulting and Project Management firm with real world experience. Our firm has been closely involved in the design, construction, development, financing, marketing and management of commercial and residential real estate for the past twenty years with a development value in excess of $1 billion.
Our firm can help your real estate workout team in the following capacities:
• Comprehensive Project Management • Construction Document and Cost Review • Budget and Construction Draw Reconciliation • General Contractor Interface and Progress Reporting • Cost to Complete Reporting • Capital Reserves Estimates and Property Condition Reporting • Punch-list Management and Completion • Accessibility Compliance • Architectural Work • Conversions (condo-to-rental and rental-to-condo) • Unit Modifications • Unit Closing Management • Condo Association Interface • Risk Analysis and Due Diligence • REO Analysis and Loss Management • Lease-up Management • Marketing, Inventory Sellout and Liquidation
Our team includes architects, engineers, attorneys, accountants, marketers, and construction field personnel that can address any need you may have. With meticulous attention to detail, we can setup quickly, and provide prompt results anywhere in the country. Call us to discuss how we can help you. I can be reached at 847-208-7074 or thomas@roszakadc.com
Best Regards,
Thomas Roszak, AIA Sole Member TR Management and Consulting, LLC
In light of today's uncertain economic climate and the troubling state of the real estate market, it is a challenging environment to sell residential condominium homes. I have teamed with Accelerated Marketing Partners to conduct an auction of 40 homes at Vetro.It is difficult to break the stalemate between buyers and developers with respect home prices. By having an auction, we are providing a transparent sales process that enables the buyer to determine the market value for the homes. We trust the market to conduct their due diligence and are willing to accept the price that they deliver on Auction day. We want Vetro to be a fully sold and stable building for our homeowners and see this auction as an opportunity to achieve that goal.The Chicago Tribune wrote about the Vetro auction today and our move to jump-start sales in Chicago.
Vetro Real Estate AuctionSat., March 7 at 1 p.m.W Chicago Hotel – City Center, located at 172 West Adams Street in downtown Chicago.
Sales center & model homes are open daily through March 6 at 611 S. Wells in the Printers Row district.Call 312.675.0601 or visit http://www.vetrochicago.com
The concept of New Urbanism is on the rise in metro areas across the country. While advocates have been touting its benefits for several years now, rising gas prices just might help New Urbanism gain the momentum it needs.
For those not familiar with the concept, New Urbanism is a way of designing more self-contained communities so people travel less and can use alternate means of transportation for their daily needs. New Urbanism starts with a busy central business district, like Chicago’s Loop, with surrounding areas designed to minimize the challenges of transportation from high density to low density. Communities are walkable and bicycle friendly, encouraging less driving but still accessible by car. The key is to accommodate all types of transportation.
You see this concept growing in Chicago’s River South neighborhood – where Vetro is located – as the community becomes more pedestrian-friendly thanks to cores of businesses, services and entertainment. For example, the abundance and variety of shopping and services along Roosevelt mean residents don’t have to leave the neighborhood to get their errands done. The community also scores high marks for public transportation options. New Urbanists cite studies that people are most likely to take mass transit if it’s within a quarter-mile of their home. Within this radius River South residents can catch six different El lines, a suburban commuter train, and several bus lines.
With rising gas prices and concerns about the environment, developers can band together to do their part by planning communities that encourage a New Urbanism lifestyle. Our customers will thank us for it.
I am an architect, a builder and a developer. When I designed and built my house, the GlassHouse, in 2002, one of my childhood dreams came true. When I was a kid, I always said I would build a “green” house, and this was before any real environmental inklings existed about housing, it was strictly a house in the color of green, my favorite color. And I think I said it was to have all the gadgets that the Jetson’s house had…that was back when I was about 10 years old.
After graduating from IIT’s School of Architecture in 1989, I worked for David Hovey and got a first hand look at two of his own ultra-contemporary homes; first on Elm Street and then helping build his 2nd house on the lake. I learned about Mies’ Wolf house. I visited Mies’ Barcelona Pavilion and Farnsworth house. I met Michael and Patty Hopkins personally and visited their fantastic home many times. I love Richard Roger’s Zip House; Norman Foster’s personal un-built residence; all of Richard Meier’s homes (many I visited); and also Richard Horden’s and Tadao Ando’s work (my wife and I visited 10 Ando buildings in one day thanks to the Shinkansen and eager cabbies). There is a lineage of these “modern” homes that stretches from the 1920’s and continues to today. We are all constantly dreaming of dwellings and how we’d like to live, not only me or these and other architects mentioned here, but also everyone. Humans have been doing this “dreaming” since caves and huts were first used and invented. Provide shelter, security and foster growth…that’s what a house is for. Technology in homes has always been the most advanced it possibly it could be at any time (cavemen included). This quest for advancing the house concept seems to have stalled (today) except for an elite group of modernists. We need to continue to dream and push technology so everyone can have shelter, security and foster growth, but in a way that expresses our epoch. What does the house of tomorrow look like?
The GlassHouse is a perfect family home and is a pleasure to live in. It looks smart and modern and acts smart and modern. It is a piece of art as much as it is real estate. My wife and I will design and build a new house. We will build an environmentally effective house, using technology and concepts I have been studying recently. We will utilize geo-thermal, solar panels and other energy concepts to make a zero-energy house; the idea is to produce more energy than we use and sell the extra energy back to the grid. Every house will be doing this in 10-25 years. To be a leader in environmental design and show people “which way is forward”. We will utilize recycled materials like reclaimed wood and the sides of shipping containers (I’d also love to incorporate airplane wings, if my wife Justyna lets me). The idea is to build a new house every 7-10 years or so. Each one is an experiment and a physical expression of what I am interested in and want to learn about. I have a team of engineers and consultants who will help me makes this new house the most advanced it can be.
The new house will be called the LoveHouse…love of family and love of the environment. The new house will accommodate everything my family and I want and need in an environmentally friendly way. We will embrace each other and the earth too. We all must.
I am so proud that the GlassHouse won the 2008 American Institute of Architects Interior Architecture award.
My original GreenHouse idea became in reality the built GlassHouse, and now I am dreaming about the LoveHouse.
Description of urban and architectural development conceptual design of the historical city centre of Gorzow Wlkp. “The pedestrianization of the historic city centre will advance new enterprise and development.”
Traffic times through city will decrease which will signal to all users “this is a efficient and usable city! I want to do business here, I want to live here, study, work, travel…” High pedestrian activity will increase retail uses especially eateries, which will in turn increase residential and office occupancies on upper floors in new and renovated buildings. The improved residential and office occupancies will reciprocately induce more retail demand; this is a very important circular relationship. The Ring Road will decrease pollution in the centre. Local traffic for residents of the centre, deliveries and taxis will be allowed and monitored by electronic pass system. The Staromiejski Bridge will become a pedestrian bridge as part of the Ring Road concept. This will encourage pedestrian use on both sides of the river. The Ring Road requires the construction of two new modern bridges that can handle the actual traffic loads that the old Staromiejski Bridge cannot. The new bridges built as a vierendeel truss can accommodate future needs. 
Renewed Paving System
Parking Garages
Green Belt Park and Riverfront City
Blades of Grass
Education + Industry Zones
