PZU Tower
Main data:
Total height: 97 m
Number of floors: 26
Year of construction: 2000
Designer: Tadeusz Spychala, Wojciech Poplawski, Willibald Furst
Location: Al. Jana Pawła II (John Paul II Avenue) 24
This skyscraper had been built from 1997 as Les Tours Business Research Centre, but it changed the name into PZU Tower when it was bought by largest Polish insurance company PZU.
The building has a light blue colour and a gentle, curved shape. On last eight floors there is a large atrium, covered with a glass roof. PZU Tower is worth attention because of few untypical technical solutions. On its top there is a large crane, which is used mainly for cleaning the elevation. On the end of the crane's boom long steel ropes are hanged, on the end of them there is a special cabin, where a worker who cleans windows is sitting.
Second interesting fact is a double elevation. On the exterior side of whole building there is a glass surface, and behind it there is the actual elevation with windows, which can be opened. Thanks to such solution there is warmer inside and the cost of heating in the winter is lower. But in the summer inside such "greenhouse"there is much warmer, so air-conditioning is necessary. And here there is another interesting fact: the building is fully intelligent, and does not allow to waste energy. The air-conditioning can be turned on only if the window in the room is closed and is turned off immediately when somebody opens the window. Also the system of mirrors situated above the atrium is very smart. Thanks to it the sunlight is directed so that it warmed the hall. When the system decides that it is too hot inside, it draws canvas roller blinds over the mirrors. But when too strong wind starts to blow, the roller blinds are rolled up, so that there were not torn. Appling so many modern facilities was quite expensive but the designers' idea was to make the building's maintenance cheaper.
Also a characteristic, three-floors high annexe which is actually hanged on the top of the building, above Grzybowska street draws much attention. That is where PZU's board of directors' offices are located. So they can look down on whole city. Only they cannot have a fear of heights.
(C) 2001-2010 Maciej Blazejewski