Marian Krenski Apartment House

The apartment house was built in 1939 according to the design of Zbigniew Kupiec and Tadeusz Kossak – the most active duo of Gdynia's architects – and is one of the most interesting modernist buildings in Gdynia.

It combines the features of moderate modernism (e.g. rhythmic, vertical lisenes dividing the main façade) with the elements of late functionalism, expressed by "waving balconies" and ribbon windows, on the side of 42 Żwirki i Wigury Street. The authors of the design approached the form of the building in a more monumental manner than it is adopted in functionalism: they used, among others, slender pillars of the corner, and a new element – a strongly outlined and extended cornice. The higher, corner part of the building emphasises the intersection of streets, and the lower fragments connect the house with the neighboring ones. From the side of the backyard, it has an impressive glazed staircase. The outbreak of the war made it impossible to plaster the façade and finish the ground floor, nor to install the lift, which was already waiting for unloading in the port.