Façade decoration at 75 Ogarna St.

Technique: painting

Object:

A historicist façade covering a block of flats built as part of the post-war reconstruction of Gdańsk. In 2017, the façade underwent a major refurbishment under the ‘Gdańskie Fasady OdNowa’ project, which aimed to improve the quality of public spaces in Główne Miasto by adding architectural decoration to existing buildings that were omitted during Gdańsk’s reconstruction.

The biaxial façade received a watercolour painting decoration, in pastel colours with dominant elements in oranges contrasting with the blue of the plaster. In the strip between the first and second storeys, roundels with images of lions were placed on the façade’s axis. Between the second and third storeys, there are squares approaching the outer edges of the windows: the western one with an abstract chequerboard, the eastern one with a lion’s paw on a chequerboard. Between the third and fourth floors, there are tondos approaching the inner edges of the windows: the western one with a lion’s paw, the eastern one with a crown. Two lion’s heads facing each other are placed between the fourth storey and the attic in the central part. The entire design is crowned with floral motifs separating the panels on the attic.

Place:

The buildings are in an area designated as a heritage site. They form part of the historic urban layout of the city of Gdańsk. Ogarna Street was destroyed in 1945 during the war. It was rebuilt on the basis of the so-called Zachwatowicz plan that envisaged the reconstruction of historical forms, which was only feasible in the form of a workers’ housing estate. The erected block of flats was covered by a historicist façade screen. The buildings thus created were the result of combining two houses into a complex with a common staircase, an entrance from the courtyard and an even top line of windows emphasising the block-like nature of the premise. The elevations were not completed with architectural decoration.

Information about the author:

Wilga Badowska graduated from the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. She presented her graduation work in 1986 in the painting studio of Professor Kazimierz Ostrowski. She has since exhibited her work at numerous group and solo exhibitions in Poland and internationally.

Condition of the object: good

Owner/guardian: “Attyka” real estate management

Author of the entry: Noemi Etush