The Olympus is one of the most recognisable buildings in Gdansk, located in the centre of the Wrzeszcz Górny district. This 17-storey skyscraper, 55 metres high, was completed on 31 December 1969. Although today it is surrounded by other modern buildings, including Quattro Towers and the Manhattan Shopping Centre, Olimp still attracts attention as the oldest of the tallest residential buildings in Gdansk.
The building was designed in 1961 by architects Romuald Kokoszko and Stanisław Michel. The skyscraper is in the modernist style, referring to modern western trends in architecture of the time. The aim of the project was to create a building that would stand out in the cityscape, both in terms of height and modernity of form.
The skyscraper in 1970. Photo: Zbigniew Kosycarz / KFP
The construction of Olympus began in 1966, and its implementation was not without its difficulties. At the time, construction investments of this scale were rare, which caused a lot of commotion, e.g. unprecedented traffic jams on nearby Grunwaldzka Avenue. After three years, on 31 December 1969, the building was officially opened, becoming a symbol of modern architecture in Wrzeszcz. The building housed 65 high-standard flats. They were finished with oak parquet floors, tiles and terracotta tiles and equipped with wardrobes, pavilions and kitchen furniture and gas cookers. On the ground floor of the high-rise, retail and service outlets have been placed, connected to the building occupied by a large self-service shop. On the second floor, a recreational terrace was created around the main body of the building, and a café was opened on the top floor.
The name of the building – Olympus – comes from it. The restaurant, which was a kind of attraction, offered guests the opportunity to admire the panorama of Wrzeszcz and the surrounding area from a unique perspective. Today there is a restaurant on the top floor. At the time, Olympus was the second tallest building in Gdansk, second only to Zieleniak, which was being built at the same time, and quickly became one of the symbols of the Upper Wrzeszcz district. During the communist era, the building was colloquially known as ‘Dolarowiec’, because flats in it could only be purchased with ‘hard currency’, usually US dollars. For this reason, flats in the Olympus were only available to people with access to foreign currency, mainly sailors and their families.
Despite the passage of years, the Olympus still plays an important role in the architectural landscape of Gdansk. Until 2011, it was the tallest building in the Wrzeszcz district, symbolising modernity and development. Today, although surrounded by new developments, it still attracts attention with its modernist style and distinctive silhouette.
Source: gdansk.pl, gdansk.gedanopedia.pl
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