Eastern Wall

The development of the east side of Marszałkowska Street, known as the Eastern Wall (Ściana Wschodnia) – three residential high-rises and a row of department stores – was the largest urban-planning project of 1960s Warsaw. Designed by Zbigniew Karpiński and Jan Klewin, the construction began in 1962 and concluded in 1969. Chrząszczowa documented the successive stages of the development of the Rotunda building, the tower blocks at Świętokrzyska and Złota streets, and the department stores (Sezam, Wars and Sawa) at Marszałkowska Street. She took the photographs from the top floors of the Palace of Culture and Science, the lens capturing uncleared rubble and vast stretches of undeveloped terrain.