Unity Tower, formerly known as the Skeletor ( pl, ) is a 102.5 metre high-rise building located in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Unity Tower is located near the Mogilskie Roundabout (''Rondo Mogilskie'') and Cracow University of Economics. It is the tallest building in Kraków. The construction work of Unity Centre was completed on 30 September 2020.

History

Originally, it was intended to become the regional office of the Main Technical Organization ('' Naczelna Organizacja Techniczna, NOT'') and be named the NOT Tower. The construction of the building was started in 1975, but stopped permanently in 1979 because of economic constraints and political unrest which later led to the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981. Due to the skeletal appearance of the unfinished building, it was dubbed the Skeletor ( pl, ). Investors expressed interest in renovating the building in the past, but they were discouraged by the complicated legal status of the land on which it stood and the high cost of its demolition or adaptation. In 2007, a new plan for the building was put forward, which postulated to increase its height from 92 to as high as 130 meters. German architect

Hans Kollhoff Hans Kollhoff (born 18 September 1946 in Bad Lobenstein, Thuringia) is a German architect and professor. He is a representative of Postmodern and New Classical Architecture, as well as a protagonist of New Urbanism. Early life Kollhoff spent the ...

was invited to take part in the reconstruction of the building, which was supposed to be completed by the time of

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

in Poland and Ukraine. However, the project was rejected by the Provincial Conservation Council on the grounds that the new building was located within a historical urban landscape. The building was partially owned by TreiMorfa Project. The long debate about its possible future use based on brand new plans was cut short by the courts in December 2011 because of legal improprieties by its new design team. Austrian engineering company Strabag was given the commission to rebuild. The building's floors were removed and replaced, but the steel frame retained and reused. The exterior architecture was inspired by the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

architecture of the 1920s and 30s. The use of grey stone and the architecture was partially inspired by the

Maccabees Building The Maccabees Building (sometimes called Wayne Tower) is a historic building located at 5057 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and is currently owned by Wayne State U ...

. In 2018, before the full reconstruction of the building was completed, the

ArchDaily ArchDaily is a weblog covering architectural news, projects, products, events, interviews and competitions, opinion pieces, among others, catering to architects, designers and other interested parties. Description ArchDaily is one of the mo ...

architecture website named Szkieletor as one of "History's Most Notorious Unfinished Buildings" alongside the

Palace of the Soviets The Palace of the Soviets (russian: Дворец Советов, ''Dvorets Sovetov'') was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the pa ...

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and

Ryugyong Hotel The Ryugyong Hotel (; sometimes spelled as Ryu-Gyong Hotel), or Yu-Kyung Hotel, more commonly known outside of North Korea as the "Hotel of Doom", is an unfinished 105-story, pyramid-shaped skyscraper in Pyongyang, North Korea. Its name ("cap ...

Gallery

File:Szkieletor in Krakow.jpg, The building in 2005 before reconstruction File:Szkieletor, 2008.jpg, Szkieletor at nighttime in 2008 File:Szkieletor, 2009.jpg, Szkieletor repurposed as a billboard display in 2009 File:Skeletor building in Krakow.jpg, Szkieletor in 2014, prior to reconstruction File:Unity Tower, 31 stycznia 2017.jpg, Under construction in January 2017 File:Unity Tower. 2 Lubomirskiego street, Krakow, Poland.jpg, Unity Tower in 2020 File:20200516 Unity Tower w Krakowie 0929 9982.jpg, Unity Tower upon completion, 2020 File:Unity Tower,, 2 Lubomirskiego street, Krakow, Poland.jpg, View from the Mogilskie Roundabout

References

External links

{{commons category-inline Buildings and structures in Kraków Towers completed in 2020 Skyscrapers in Poland Rebuilt buildings and structures in Poland

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links