25 years of Buro Happold in Poland
Buro Happold has been operating for 25 years in Poland. The Warsaw office opened in 1997, with an initial focus on structural engineering. The Warsaw office has steadily grown and built a solid reputation for delivering high quality projects across retail, commercial office, hospitality, cultural and civic sectors.
To mark the 25th anniversary, we speak to members of our leadership and staff who have worked in the Warsaw office over the years. They have all played a part in Buro Happold’s 25 years in the region and have seen the many changes in services, projects and people.
The office
The type of engineering services that have emerged from Poland has changed significantly since 1997. Zbigniew Czajewski is managing director in Poland, based in the Warsaw office and became a partner in 2017.
When talking about the change of pace of the type of work coming out of Poland over the last 15 years, he said, “There has been an enormous change in technology in all disciplines from Warsaw, such as the switch from 2D to 3D and BIM modelling, to computational engineering. There has been a great change in the quality of what is being built in Poland; Buro Happold’s offering of multidisciplinary and integrated engineering is what I see more and more as being desired by the market.”
Krzysztof Staszewski, partner and leader of the HVAC team in Warsaw, also recognises the huge changes that have occurred since the founding of the Warsaw office in 1997. “I joined Buro Happold in 2008. This was around the time when the Warsaw office started an intensive growth process. Together with growing our team, we have now built our brand as one of the best engineering companies in Poland.”
A move towards an expert building services engineering (MEP) offering took place when Ian Booth joined the Warsaw office. Ian was based in Warsaw with Buro Happold for 12 years (he now works from the New York office) and was instrumental in the transition. “When I joined, it was primarily a structural engineering office, with some MEP; I set up a dedicated MEP team with five graduates and a couple of engineers. We then restructured and I became a partner; when I left in 2019, we had around 100 MEP engineers. I believe that Warsaw is still the biggest MEP office within Buro Happold.”
A shift in emphasis regarding projects and service offering is not the only change that the Warsaw office has seen in recent years. In 2015, the office itself changed as part of a retrofit project that led with a focus on sustainability and efficiency; these are principles that all Buro Happold employees in Poland pride themselves on.
Now based in Spektrum Tower in central Warsaw, the office move provided an opportunity for Buro Happold Poland to work in an environment that they helped design, with improved acoustics, high quality air provision, innovative water systems and advanced lighting design; truly, a demonstration of the services and benefits Buro Happold can provide for its clients, and now, its staff. The new office was designed with a health and wellbeing focus; it was the first project to be WELL certified in Poland and the first Buro Happold office to receive that certification.
The design choices here were not an accident or random; we selected the building and worked on the design purposefully to showcase what we can do.
Joanna Kowalska, Administration and Commercial Director
Joanna Kowalska is the administration and commercial director for Warsaw. She joined Buro Happold in 2010 and was instrumental in the move to the new site. She said, “I have seen a lot of changes! We were in a different location when I joined. The current office is like an emblem for Buro Happold. The design choices here were not an accident or random; we selected the building and worked on the design purposefully to showcase what we can do.
“One of the aims of the move was getting our name out there and making sure people knew who we were; this was a big effort and I believe it has been successful with the support of senior people within the organisation.
“In terms of the work we provide, what we offer has developed enormously, including the move to 3D modelling. We have also now branched out to sustainability services such as carbon footprint analysis and energy analysis. It seems people are really keen to develop these areas, even though these are new specialties for the Polish market.”
The people
Zbigniew Czajewski said, “The change of Buro Happold in Poland has been massive. Before Ian Booth joined 15 years ago the Warsaw office was practically a single discipline office providing mainly structural engineering. I joined one year after Ian did, when the office held about 40 people; now it is 140 people providing structural engineering, MEP, sustainability services and carbon footprint consultancy. We have a unique pool of talented people who get on well with each other; relationships are based on respect, appreciation and team effort, with a strong passion for what we do.”
Ian Booth managed the Warsaw office before returning to New York and looks back fondly at his time in Poland, especially at the team that he built there. “The team in Warsaw are thorough, detailed, reliable and hard-working engineers. The skills that have been developed, the embracing of Revit software and the level of coordination is second to none. The skill set that they have – structurally and in terms of MEP – shows in the quality of work. The dedication and ability to deliver any project is impressive.”
The team in Warsaw are thorough, detailed, reliable and hard-working engineers.
Ian Booth, Partner
Having been in place before, during and after the office move and recent period of growth, Joanna Kowalska is very aware of the need to have the right people in place to ensure a vibrant workplace that creates innovative and meaningful output. “We need to demonstrate agility and the ability to be proactive. Things can be quite unexpected! We often have surprises and unexpected things that come up; it is a dynamic office, and we often don’t know what to expect the next day.
“We had challenges during Covid-19 like everyone else. We received a lot of helpful information from the global health and safety team in the UK. We never shut down completely and continued to be an operational office at all times. Especially on the technical and project front we did well, with a lot of support from the team leaders here.”
Krzysztof Staszewski agrees that the people in the Warsaw office make it a special place to work. “People bring the biggest value to our office. We have managed to build a unique team; they are able to deal with the biggest technical challenges there are and to work on complex project across the world.”
The projects
The Warsaw office has transitioned to offering a comprehensive suite of engineering services for Poland and beyond. Commercial and cultural projects now take centre stage, with several high-rise building and cultural hub projects in recent years. The output from the Warsaw office has increased in line with its growth; there has been a particular focus cultural projects, and on tall buildings and skyscrapers.
Ian Booth is proud of the variety and depth of projects that have come out of the Warsaw office in recent years. “We have worked on some of the most important infrastructure and cultural projects in Poland, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the Polish Army and several metro stations in Warsaw. We also worked on foreign embassies and many high-rise buildings. During my time in Warsaw, we spent a long time building fantastic relationships with some of the key architects in the region.”
Zbigniew Czajewski said, “Looking at and comparing our past portfolio of projects, the strength of the brand is completely different now. We are well known for our quality and ability to work on difficult and outstanding projects. We have now five high-rise buildings finished and operational, with another few high-rise designs either completed or in design. The Q22 skyscraper was the first high-rise delivered by the Warsaw office; it is one of the best tall buildings in the city.”
Joanna Kowalska also focuses on the increase of the work of Buro Happold’s Polish team on tall buildings. The first high-rise building on their books was the Q22 skyscraper in Warsaw. Joanna said, “It is nice to be involved in creating the Warsaw skyline. When I joined in 2010, we did not have the capacity or capability to work on high-rises.
“The first we worked on was Q22; it is the neighbouring building to our office, so we can look out of the window and see it. Since then, we have built several more and have become a go-to design office for high rise buildings in Poland in general. I think the development of this capability is a great achievement for us.”
Adrianna Gilewska is marketing coordinator in Warsaw and agrees that skyscrapers are an impressive part of the Warsaw offices’ output and admires Varso Tower, the tallest building in the European Union. Buro Happold provided a series of multidisciplinary engineering services, including structural engineering, energy consulting and building services engineering.
Adrianna said, “I also appreciate projects that create new environments and shape districts. Others I would like to mention are the Museum of Modern Art and Sinfonia Varsovia, because they will change their surroundings and have an impact; I think they will be able to really help create something more important than the building itself.” The Sinfonia Varsovia Centrum is a landmark cultural project in Poland; it will be a new cultural centre in Warsaw, housing The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra.
The evolution of Warsaw into a vibrant, multi-disciplinary office is largely down to the efforts of those working there over the last 15 years; it has been transformed into an important base of Buro Happold’s European operations, with a focus on expert MEP services. As work continues to flow from Poland, with an embracing of sustainable and energy efficient practices, the future for the Warsaw office seems bright; there are increasing opportunities to shape and influence communities, districts and cities in Poland and beyond.
