19/25 Grójecka Street in Warsaw, Residential complex at Grójecka Street in Ochota, Poland
The building at 19/25 Grójecka Street is a fourteen-storey residential block designed by Jan Zdanowicz, with construction carried out between 1962 and 1968 for the teachers' housing cooperative "Oświata". Its longer sides are slightly recessed to form an X-shaped plan, and pointed balconies create offset bands across the facade. The ground floor, larger than the upper storeys, was originally planned to house a café, a delicatessen, a garden and garages.
The building became historically significant when the first underground Radio Solidarity broadcast was transmitted from its roof on April 12, 1982. This transmission made the location an important symbol of resistance during that period.
A mosaic by Maria Leszczynska from 1968 adorns the ground floor facade, blending stones and glass fragments into a colorful composition. The artwork shows how craft and everyday residential architecture came together in this building.
The building occupies the block between Grójecka, Niemcewicza and Tarczyńska streets in Stara Ochota, with the ground floor set back and larger than the upper storeys. The club Dekada has operated on the ground floor since 1999, in premises that housed the Słoneczna café from 1969. Look for the glass plaque of 2010 and the mural painted beside it in 2012 on the facade.
The building's X-shaped plan and pointed balconies were reused by architect Jan Zdanowicz for three tower blocks known as "Iksy" on the Torwar estate. A glass plaque added to the facade in 2010 marks the roof transmitter that aired the first Radio Solidarity broadcast on 12 April 1982.
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