Made up of three buildings, Varso Place is a spectacular mixed-use complex built right in the heart of the Polish capital. It’s home to offices, a hotel, an innovation center, restaurants, coffee shops, a fitness club, and a health center – as well as the highest observation deck in Poland. Its most prominent structure, the Varso Tower, soaring to a height of 310 meters, holds the distinction of being the tallest building in the European Union.
From Varso Tower’s observation deck, 230 meters above the ground, visitors can enjoy unimpeded views across the whole of Warsaw – including the nearby Palace of Culture and Science which had been the tallest building in Poland for nearly three quarters of a century.
The new skyscraper, designed by architects Foster + Partners and developed by HB Reavis, is now not only the tallest building in Poland, but it’s also the tallest building in the European Union.
With 53 floors and an 80-meter spire rising from its rooftop, Varso Tower stands 310 meters tall, and is one of three buildings – along with the Varso 1 and Varso 2 buildings, that were designed by local Polish architectural company HRA Architekci – which collectively make up Varso Place. The mixed-use complex sits in the heart of Warsaw and is home to offices, a hotel, an innovation center, restaurants, coffee shops, a fitness club, and a health center – as well as the highest observation deck in Poland.
Throughout Varso Place, we installed a total of 57 elevators – including 16 Schindler 7000s, 12 of which are double-deck elevators – and eight Schindler 9300 escalators. Our state-of-the-art building transit management system, Schindler PORT, optimizes passenger flow and energy consumption across all our units, while providing added security with customized access control. Our Schindler PORT terminals also make use of NFC and Bluetooth technology to provide seamless access – eliminating the need for physical access cards.
With all our innovations optimized for sustainable operations, they helped Varso Tower achieve BREEAM Outstanding (the highest BREEAM certification possible which measures the sustainability performance of buildings) and WELL Gold (the second highest WELL Certification, which focuses on people's health and wellness) certifications.
"Varso Place is an important project, not just for us, but for the whole of Poland," says Marcin Loskot, Managing Director of Schindler Poland. "We’re proud to have been part of the project, working closely with HB Reavis to deliver what is truly an innovative and exceptional complex."
If you look at a map of Warsaw, and point at the middle of the city, there’s a good chance your finger will land on Varso Place. With great connections on its doorstep, it’s easy to get to from anywhere in the city via metro, tram, bus, commuter rail, or bike.
But the project’s central location in the city also posed a logistical challenge during construction. On the project’s eastern side is Aleja Jana Pawła II – a dual carriageway, with a tram line, and bicycle path. Being one of Warsaw’s main avenues, it offers excellent regular access but poses challenges for deliveries.
To the south stands a large parking lot, which might sound ideal but the city’s suburban light rail line station, Warsaw Downtown WKD, is situated underneath it, along with the rail lines connecting to Warsaw Central Station. That meant it wasn’t possible to deliver heavy material from this side either. To make things even more challenging, there’s no access available from the west, with Varso Place directly bordering other buildings.
"The challenge was that everything for the project had to be delivered along one road," says Pawel Zawieja, our Project Manager for Varso Place. Chmielna Street is a small access road that runs along the northern side of the project. "Whenever we wanted to have something delivered on-site, we had to use a special register and choose a specific timeslot. If the delivery was late, then you went to the back of the queue."
Through careful planning and expert coordination, our team was able to navigate these challenges and complete every milestone on time during construction. This was achieved by our team implementing Schindler TREX, our project management system specifically designed to guide our large projects through their entire life cycle – from tender to handover.
During installation at Varso Tower, our teams used our globally standardized Schindler Scaffold Less Installation Methodology (SLIM), which is embedded into Schindler TREX, to provide a higher level of safety and efficiency.
"Schindler SLIM provides a safe working platform for the installation process, while being incredibly efficient, flexible, and independent from the building," says Urs Püntener, our Head of Global Fulfilment. "Compared to traditional methods, it can save up to 30% in installation time."
Schindler SLIM is specifically designed for high-rise towers. It allows the installation to be broken down into stages to provide increased flexibility during construction. "It provided our teams in Warsaw with an efficient and safe solution to help them meet all of the project’s specifications," explains Urs.
During the construction of Varso Tower, we deployed Schindler R.I.S.E, our innovative Robotic Installation System for Elevators, and from the moment our robot LEA arrived on-site, it began to turn heads.
"Schindler R.I.S.E is very helpful during installation because the robot does the repetitive and physically demanding task of drilling holes and setting anchor bolts," explains Pawel.
There are many benefits which arise from the robot undertaking this work. Not only does it make the worksite safer for our fitters, but it also means they have more time to focus on other aspects of the installation – such as quality checks, logistics, or installing other elevators. Overall, the outcome is a higher caliber of installation – all while enabling our clients to complete their projects faster and more efficiently.
"Everyone on-site was quite surprised and a little bit in shock when they saw our Schindler R.I.S.E robot in action. In a good way!" Pawel says with a smile. "The robot can be controlled by someone remotely, so they don’t even have to be on-site. Once the robot is set up and ready to go, it can work autonomously without needing to stop for a break. It’s really a new step up in technology."
While Schindler R.I.S.E stole the limelight, it wasn’t the only innovative technology that helped elevate the building to new levels – the project also benefitted from using Schindler CLIMB Lift.
Schindler CLIMB Lift helps everyone on the job site, not just our team.
Pawel Zawieja, our Project Manager for Varso Place
Schindler CLIMB Lift helps to maximize on-site efficiency and safety, by replacing the need for temporary external hoist lifts with a permanent internal elevator that quite literally grows with the building. Every time new floors are added to the building, the Schindler CLIMB Lift can be extended to provide secure and efficient access – with a maximum speed of two meter per second and a maximum rated load of 2,000 kilograms.
"Schindler CLIMB Lift helps everyone on the job site, not just our team," says Pawel. "It provides a working elevator that is more stable than external hoists and that can carry greater loads at faster speeds." There's also the added bonus that it can be used whatever the weather conditions are like outdoors, as it's an internal elevator.
Once the building is finished, the elevators internal protective fittings are replaced, and you have the final elevator already in place. This helps to speed up the process of facade closing which helps to save additional time for the overall construction.
At Varso Tower, we deployed two innovative installation technologies for the first time in Poland – Schindler R.I.S.E and Schindler CLIMB Lift.
The Varso Tower has two publicly accessible observation decks at 205 meters and 230 meters. While both provide spectacular views, the experience of getting up to them is just as impressive. Our team installed two panoramic elevators that run up the spine of the building at a speed of eight meters per second – the fastest elevators in Poland. To reach the higher observation deck, the architects had a vision of arriving in a "flying glass cube."
"Turning this concept into a reality was really quite challenging," explains André Weibel, Chief Engineer from our Custom Design Engineering (CDE) team. "But it's projects like this that really make your eyes light up when you first see the specifications. It’s demanding work, but also, it’s a lot of fun."
The top cabin appears to almost be floating.
André Weibel, Chief Engineer
The idea was for this elevator to travel inside the spire that extends beyond the roof. But since the designs for the spire had already been finalized, it was crucial that no additional load from the elevator be transferred onto its structure.
"This was when we proposed a hydraulic elevator," says André. "It required a custom-made double deck elevator where the top cabin, made of glass, appears to almost be floating. In reality, though, it’s sitting on top of another cabin that is used as a service elevator to supply the rooftop restaurant and bar."
As if that wasn’t enough, the floating elevator still has one final trick up its sleeve. When you first enter it, its sides are opaque – but when you arrive at the top, they transform into clear glass to give you an amazing, expansive view of the whole city.