Jan Kossowski


Jan Kossowski was a Polish architect and builder, mainly associated with Bydgoszcz. His professional activity spanned from the interwar period to the 1940s. His artistic style is mainly connected with Modern Architecture.

Life

Jan Kossowski was born in the estate of Chrzanówka, near Mogilev in the Podolia region on July 13, 1898. The Kossowski family had his roots in the voivodeship of Lublin; Franciszek the ancestor was the first Kossowski of the line in the 15th century.
His mother Karolina died when he was 11 years old in 1909 and his father Jan passed away in 1917. The young Jan graduated from Mogilev primary school and from Vinnytsia junior school. He then started learning in Odessa.
On April 27, 1917, he volunteered for the Polish I Corps in Russia commanded by the general Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki: injured in June 1918, he was sent home to his family estate. After working two years as an accountant in a sugar refinery in Stepanówce, near Vinnytsia, he joined anew the Polish army in 1920, and participated to the Battle of Warsaw for which he was decorated.
Still serving in different army units, lived in 1921 in Poznań, in 1922-1923, in Toruń and in May 1923, he moved to Bydgoszcz to be employed as a building draftsman for the District Engineering Management. Jan Kossowski asked to be transferred from Toruń to Bydgoszcz so as to start learning at the State School of Art Industry. Released from army service at the end of 1923, he was employed on November 1, 1924, by the architect and engineer Bronisław Jankowski, first as a construction technician, and then from 1928 onwards as the head of Bronisław's office at Dworcowa Street 62, since Bronisław Jankowski moved at the time to Gdynia to co-manage another construction company. From 1925 to 1928, he designed and realized for Jankowski 's firm residential villas on the thriving Sielanka district. 1933 brought many changes in Kossowski's life: in June, he married Pelagia Brzezińska from Bydgoszcz, but the same year Bronisław Jankowski closed his Bydgoszcz office in 1933, following the economic aftermath of the Great Depression, and Kossowski's cooperation with the company ended. Jan then set up his own architectural studio in Bydgoszcz, at Chwytowo street 6, which he moved in 1937 to Kordeckiego 24, where he also lived with his family.
Leading his own company, the 1930s were the most prolific period for Kossowski's professional activity. During these times, he designed over 30 tenement houses and villas in downtown district, mainly in the Sielanka and Leśne areas. Some of these buildings stand in Gdańska Street, Wolności Square or Swiętej Trojcy street.
On August 23, 1939, he was enlisted to the army, got captured on September 17, but managed to escape and returned to Bydgoszcz in mid-November. Demobilized, he initially found a job in a water and sewage installation company owned by engineer Józef Piecek, and subsequently worked in the office of architect Karl Schaum from April 1940 to May 1943: during this period, he supervised the construction of arcades at the groundfloor of opposite tenements at Jagiellońska street in Bydgoszcz No.2 and Focha street No.2. Later, he worked at the Municipal Construction Office.
After the liberation, he was appointed by Polish municipal authorities in January 1945, as the head of the Urban Planning and Development Department and as the city architect. Jan Kossowski maintained for a while his second job in his own architectural office now located at Jagiellońska street 22, but in 1948, he switched to a full-time position to the benefit of the city affairs in the Central Office of Studies and Projects of Industrial Construction. Many constructions in Bydgoszcz date back to this period, in particular in Gdańska Street, Słowackiego Street, 3 May street or Theatre square. For the latter, Kossowski even drafted the project of a new building to replace the former Municipal Theatre razed in 1945. In June 1953, he submitted a design for the philharmonic building; though not endorsed by the selection committee, his concept was pretty close to Stefan Klajbor's one realized in 1954-1958.
Jan Kossowski died on December 9, 1958. He was buried in Bydgoszcz, at the Cmentarz Nowofarny.

Activity

First part of Kossowski's activity extends till 1933: it regards works performed jointly with Bronisław Jankowski. These projects are mainly villas, which shapes refer to manors with picturesque contours, including porches supported by columns.
Kossowski's independent realizations are inspired by International style, using expressionist elements composed of simple solids. Subsequent projects, built after the Great Depression, are characterized by richer forms, with more expensive linings and a closer attention to details. In his way, he transplanted the idea of functionalism and Le Corbusier's ideas to Bydgoszcz.
After a visit he made in Gdynia 's buildings, the architect took a liking to construct more elevated edifices, often located a street corners, like the ones at Swiętej Trojcy No.5, Markwarta No.22/24 or Piotrowskiego 21, displaying four-story houses with rounded shapes and windows circulating smoothly across the entire elevation like ribbons. Jan Kossowski also designed and built in 1939 a tenement house with a car showroom at Plac Wolności No.7.
His best appraised villas designed stand in the Sielanka and Leśne areas and at Sułkowskiego street in Bydgoszcz. They were also inspired by his studies made during visiting Gdynia.
Jan Kossowski additionally designed public buildings, industrial buildings, sacral buildings.
In 1945, he supervised the repair works of the damaged roof tower of the Church of the Savior.
That same year, he designed the Freedom Monument, erected at Plac Wolności.

Instances of works in Bydgoszcz

YearEdificeRemarksPicture
1928Tenement at Słowackiego street No.3The tenement was built at the beginning of the 20th century; its first owner was the architect Paul Böhm. Jan Kossowski redesigned the interiors in 1928.
1934Villa at Asnyka street No.6, corner with Ossoliński AlleyOne of the houses part of the Sielanka area project in the 1930s.
1933-1938Markwarta Street No.22/24Located at the corner of Markwarta and Piotrowskiego streets.
1934-1937Swiętej Trojcy street No.5/5aThe tenement has been built on the premises formerly occupied by an iron foundry factory established in 1846.
1935Villa at Ossoliński Alley No.5The house has been designed for Mr L. Stojowski.
1936Tenement at 20 Stycznia 1920 Street No.41One of the first tenement realized by the architect. Investor was Emil Franke, a director of a sugar factory
1936Hotel "Pod Orlem" at Gdańska Street No.14Jan Kossowski worked in refurbishing the interiors of the hotel.
1936Emil Bernhardt tenement at Gdańska Street No.16Works of interior renovation.
1936-1937Tenement at Jna Zamoyskiego No.17Renting building commissioned by Bernard Cisewski
1937Tenement houseLocated at 20 Stycznia 1920 Street No.9.
1938House at Markwarta 11Villa commissioned by Wilhelm Millner.
1938House at Jagiellońska street 117Part of the workshop complex Pasamon
1938Tenement at Gdańska Street No.11Works of interior renovation.
1938Tenement at Gdańska Street No.12Works of interior refurbishing for a workshop.
1939Tenement at Plac Wolności No.7The facade is clad with sandstone, and the glazed ground floor was originally occupied by a Chevrolet car dealer, Antoni Butowski.
1939Tenement at Piastowski Square No.3Jan Kossowski rebuilt there a 19th-century tenement.
1939Tenement at Jagiellońska street No.4The architect expanded the original building from the end of the 19th century, with enlarged wings and outbuildings, so as to create a single, closed bank complex.
1940Ground floor arcades Tenements at Theatre square No.6 and Focha street No.2.
1946Drukarnia shopping mall at Jagiellońska street No.1Kossowski designed a major expansion of the Printing Plant Institute that then stood on the premises.
1946-1948Gasworks building at Jagiellońska street No.42Reconstruction and expansion of the administrative building.
1947Mix Ernst tenement at Gdańska Street No.10Kossowski supervised renovation works to fit a local agency of the State Agricultural Bank .
1949Reconstruction of the presbytery and the chapel of Our Lady of Czestochowa, St. Vincent de Paul Basilica MinorThe basilica, located at Ossoliński Alley No.2, has been completed in 1945.