WARSAW (AFP) — Acclaimed Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid unveiled plans Wednesday to build a 240-meter (790-foot) high residential skyscraper in the heart of the Polish capital Warsaw.
"We're very excited by this project," Hadid, 57, told reporters during a joint press conference with Warsaw Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz.
"It's a great opportunity really to be able to add to the skyline of the city," Hadid said.
Sleek in form and covered in glass, the skyscraper boasts a design based on a fleur de lys motif. With a total floor space of 101,205 square meters (1.1 million square feet), it will house apartments, a condominium hotel as well as commercial and recreation facilities.
Lilium Tower will face Warsaw's landmark Palace of Culture, a Stalinist-era specimen of socialist-realist architecture.
Investor Lilium Polska aims to complete the project by 2012, but has as yet to receive all the necessary planning permits.
Hadid is the latest in a string of top-name architects bringing their projects to Warsaw.
Last week construction began on a landmark futuristic residential skyscraper designed by acclaimed US architect Daniel Libeskind, while British architect Norman Foster is the author of the Metropolitan, a commercial centre adjacent to the National Opera in Warsaw.
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