Piotrkowska Street - Revitalization

Revitalization

Before 1990 Piotrkowska Street didn't differ much from other streets, although it was the most important street in the city. The plans of changing Piotrkowska Street into a pedestrian zone, resulted only in moving the trams to a horizontal Promenade (today called Kościuszki Avenue). Before this change the promenade had a function of a pedestrian avenue. In its centre there was a wide green belt, which later on was used as a tram line. There was not enough of political will to change Piotrkowska Street into a real pedestrian precinct, although this idea came back from time to time. The first step was the gradual reduction of street traffic by introducing "no parking" or "you must turn" signs on almost every crossroad from Mickiewicza Avenue to the Independence Square. In 1945-1990 the street suffered from the gradual degradation. Until the 1970s the old, eclectic tenement houses weren't considered by the authorities of those days as historic monuments. Several of them were destroyed and in their places office buildings and shopping centers were built, usually in the international style. In the 1980s some falling off decorative elements of the elevation, dangerous for the passers-by, were simply removed from the walls, even though the renovation of some chosen buildings had already begun.

The character of the street changed only after 1990. In this year an architect and a member of an artistic group Łódź Kaliska, Marek Janiak, came up with the idea of creating the Foundation of Piotrkowska Street. Its goal was to revitalize this street and turning it into a pedestrian precinct. As the first one, a distance between Piłsudskiego Avenue and Tuwima Street was excluded from traffic. It was covered with colorful cobblestones and equipped with modernistic street lights and other elements of the so called street furniture. It was strongly criticized by art conservatives and culture historians, because it didn't suit the general climate of the street. The next parts of the street in the northern direction to the Liberty Square were revitalized and excluded from street traffic in 1993-1997. They were paved with black cobblestones imitating the old pavement and equipped with more and more beautiful elements of the so called street furniture. Every new part, however, has another kind of surface and another style of decorative elements, which is being criticized as well. Even before the last part of the street, which was meant to be a pedestrian precinct, could be given to the public use, the cobblestones on the first part were remarkably destroyed. From 1995 those cobblestones were gradually replaced by the new ones, which were more grey in color and much more solid. That created a perfect opportunity to build in the Monument of the Lodz Citizens of Millennium Change. Together with the decoration change of Piotrkowska Street, tenement houses and little palaces standing next to it were revitalized. Some pubs, restaurants, shops and cafés moved inside them. At first mainly the front elevations of tenement houses were renovated, but as the popularity of the street increased and some of the most attractive buildings in the front were rented, revitalization gradually reached also backyards and back-premises. Nowadays, although not all of them, the huge amount of backyards is paved with cobblestones and used in trading and gastronomical purposes.