Gorzow Wielkopolski- Create a Pedestrian City

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.