The announcement was made by President Andrzej Duda and Culture Minister Piotr Gliński at a ceremony in Warsaw on Thursday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The competition was won by WXCA, a Warsaw-based firm of architects, the two top officials said.
The design comprises the reconstruction of the Saxon Palace and the Brühl Palace, both of which stood in what is now the Polish capital's Piłsudski Square, as well as of residential buildings on nearby Królewska Street, state news agency PAP reported.
Designers were tasked with replicating the external architecture of the buildings the way they looked in August 31, 1939, while also planning the interiors to meet the needs of future users, according to officials.
The reconstructed Saxon Palace, Brühl Palace and the residential buildings on Królewska Street will house public institutions, including the Office of the Senate, the National Museum, and the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, the IAR news agency reported.
The project is slated for completion in 2030, according to officials.
At Thursday’s announcement ceremony, the president said that the reconstruction project would represent a “symbolic completion of efforts to rebuild Warsaw from the destruction of World War II.”
Duda added it was “high time” Warsaw, its people and Poland as a whole "regained this part of the capital."
The president said the reconstructed buildings would be “steeped in history but also be part of a modern Warsaw.”
'Big thing for Warsaw, big thing for Poland': culture minister
Meanwhile, the culture minister said the reconstruction of the Saxon Palace was “a big thing for Warsaw and a big thing for Poland,” the PAP news agency reported.
Gliński added that the project would both “recreate and make history” by reconstructing “symbolic buildings from the past” in a way that “creates the future, by creating space designed for us all, including future generations.”
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, prezydent.pl, palacsaski.pl