Millennium Plaza
(former Reform Plaza)
Main data:
Total height: 116 m
Number of floors: 28
Year of construction: 1999
Designers: Vahap Toy with his team
Location: Al. Jerozolimskie (Jerozolimskie Avenue) 123
Millennium Plaza is definetely the most controversial Warsaw skyscraper. Most Warsaw inhabitants do not like its architecture as well as the fact that it arose in the surrounding of much lower houses. People compare it to an enormous shower booth, portable toilet or a gas container. An author of one of websites about Warsaw used probably the most original comparison, he described the building as "a tin of Red Bull put in a vice" :) A few years ago the building was also rated among thirteen ugliest buildings in Warsaw in an article in Wyborcza newspaper, just like nearby FIM Tower.
The origin of the company that designed and built the skyscraper can be an explanation of the building's strange architecture. It was built by Turkish company Reform, its director is Vahap Toy, the same man that wanted to build an airport and an entertainment centre in Biala Podlaska. Also Polish architects cooperated in designing. They explained choosing such unusual form of the building by the fact that the surrounding houses are very diverse and a new, original building could have perhaps determine a new trend of this area's architectural development.
Also the structure of the building is quite specific - the piles on which the building is based are much thicker than typical ones, because instead of using a large amount of steel, more concrete was used. Also the interior of Millennium Plaza is diversified and original. The investor wanted to create here a kind of a microclimate, with cool temperature and high air's humidity. On the first two floors, located under the ground, car parks are situated. Higher, on one underground floor and five firsts floors above the ground a shopping centre, open for public, is located. There are about hundred shops here. Exotic plants and a fountain are special attractions of that part of the building. Higher there a high-class offices. Earlier there were plans of placing inside the skyscraper a huge, few-floor-high aquarium and on the roof - a small garden with a little pond and a landing field for helicopters. Those plans were not realised. The building's height is 112 metres and including an antenna located on the top - 116 metres.
(C) 2001-2010 Maciej Blazejewski