Public Art in Urban Regeneration. Piotrkowska street. Pride of a city: Lodz

Abstract

street is the centre of Łodz. A continuous axis of more than 4 km that runs through the territory from north to south. A long shopping street divided into two clearly differentiated sections. The first from Wolności Square to Centrum Piotrkowska (approx. 2km and cross section between 16 and 24m). The second from Centrum Piotrkowska to Niepodległości square (approx 2.2 Km and cross section between 25 and 30m). From the very beginning, the street was the central axis around which the city was developing, and its development spontaneously gave the present shape to its centre. In the second section of the street, trams circulate and, despite having some important heritage facilities such as the "White Factory", the former headquarters of the Karol Scheibler industries and today the headquarters of the Central Textile Museum, it does not have the recognition that the first stretch. The first section of the street is the one that appears in all tourist guides, is the commercial and cultural heart of the city, a favourite meeting place for Łódź residents and tourists. Here festivals, concerts, sporting events, parties and fairs take place. Piotrkowska street still is flagship of the urban regeneration processes in Łódź, along with Manufaktura, and the mega urban regeneration project Nowe Centrum, with the city's new central station, the EC1 cultural complex, and the expansion of the University of Łódź campus. Territory in which the Expo 2022 was to be developed, which will finally be held in Buenos Aires. Piotrkowska's urban regeneration process clearly incorporates a public art strategy. The particularity of this strategy lies in its contents, specifically those who propose, manifest or emphasize the "pride of the city".