Adaptation and furnishing of the Gdańsk Music and Congress Centre. Phase II
It is the “cultural salon” of Gdańsk and, at the same time, the venue for meetings of the representatives of science and business. The Gdańsk Music and Congress Centre (GMCC) is where concerts, vernissages and conferences are held. Because of its attractive architecture and location, Ołowianka Island has also become the favourite destination for strollers and sightseers.
It is even difficult to imagine that for one hundred years, starting from 1898, a heat and power plant operated here that originally fully satisfied Gdańsk’s energy demand. Subsequently, this area, together with its historical buildings, was taken over by the Polish Baltic Philharmonic (PBP).
How did the idea to change the nature of this industrial facility arise? Professor Roman Perucki, the Chief Manager of the Philharmonic, visited the Swedish city of Norrköping, where the buildings of a former gas plant, situated on an island, housed a philharmonic, restaurants and even a bank. This is when he thought about Ołowianka Island and the heat and power plant that was to be liquidated.
This innovative project was under implementation from 1998 to 2005. The adaptation of the monument of technology into a music and congress centre to a design by Marcin Kozikowski was completed with the support of EU funds (2005-2006). Nowadays, the brick building delights its visitors with the decorative neo-Gothic facade ornamented with rosettes, flanks, turrets and towers. The entrance to the centre is the favourite background against which the inhabitants of Gdańsk and tourists have their photos taken. Another attraction encouraging visitors to take walks here is the Stars Promenade with the handprints by David Lynch, Faye Dunaway or Leszek Możdżer. Cyclical events are also organised here, e.g. “The Gdańsk Piano Autumn”, “Chopin on the Motława River”, “The Gdańsk Music Festival” and “The Gdańsk Proms”, and during carnival time, the place is the venue for concerts and balls. On various occasions the centre was visited by very important people, for example, Vaclav Havel, the 14th Dalai Lama and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso. Moreover, the centre houses a professional recording studio.
In the GMCC’s vicinity, there are the renovated granaries (the one owned by GMCC houses the Royal Hotel, and other ones — the National Maritime Museum). Moored to the island, there is the Museum-
-Ship “Sołdek”. All these elements together form an extraordinary panorama that can be admired from the Rybackie Pobrzeże and Wartka Streets. Although electricity is no longer generated here, Ołowianka Island has gained new energy thanks to its successful revitalisation.
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