The plot located in the south-west corner of the crossroads of the Zielna and Próżna streets, on which Wolf Zielna office building is located now, in the pre-location period (until 1300) was a property of the Mazowsze Princes.

After the location of the city the territory was a part of the Warsaw area, which was subject to the process of proprietary fragmentation in the 16th and 17th century. It was the effect of a Seym law of 1559 (which allowed the noblemen to buy real estates in towns and to make private municipalities, so called jurydykas), as well as numerous prince's and royal donations.

In 1650 the area became a part of a Grzybów jurydyka established by Jan Grzybowski, the Warsaw governor at that time. In effect of a war with Sweden (1655-1660) the town was destroyed. After a reconstruction it functioned until the enforcement of a Seym law of 18 April 1791, called as the municipal law, which liquidated the independence of jurydykas and created a legally uniform municipal agglomeration.

The Zielna street for the first time was marked in 1757 as crossing the Otwocka street (today's Marszałkowska), which belonged to the plots of the Grad Marshall of the Crown Franciszek Bieliński. The Zielna street ended its run in front of the fence of the Dembowski property, where it was connected with the Otwocka street with a short, perpendicular street - later called Próżna.

On the eastern side of the Otwocka street there were two parallel street, today's Szkolna and Jasna. The Rysia street was marked perpendicularly to them. Inside this square between the streets a small forest park was established and the remaining area became a market of the jurydyka, which belonged to Bieliński.

In 1766 the Otwocka street was prolonged to a newly formed Wilcza street, and later southwards. In 1770 the Otwocka street was officially renamed as Marszałkowska.

In the times of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815) Prussian regulations of the times of the third partition were enforced. They referred to a displacement of the Jewish people from the Centre and the main streets of the town, including the Senatorska street, which belonged to a Jewish district. The 16 March 1809 Decree indicated the Królewska and Marszałkowska streets as meant for the displacement.

During the times of a Congress Kingdom of Poland a decree of 1821 marked the final date of the displacement of the Jews. They were to leave the areas of the Marszałkowska street and move to Franciszkańska street until May 1825. The richer representatives of the Jewish community evaded the execution of the decree and stayed in their houses until a liquidation of the Ghetto during World War Two.

Launching the Railway between Warsaw and Vienna, and a station in June 1845, located at the crossroads of Marszałkowska street and Aleje Jerozolimskie revitalized the area both in terms of communication and trade. In effect the district changed its nature from craft to commerce.

In the years 1856-1868 the Próżna street was prolonged eastwards and it was called Erywańska street (today Kredytowa). This is how the final shape of the former Bielina square was set and called a Green square (at present the Dąbrowskiego square). In 1862 the Próżna street was extended towards the Grzybowski square and about 1872 the Zielna street reached the Królewska street, which improved the communication in the Marszałkowska. In 1882 nearby Marszałkowska a regular horsecar started to operate and in the years 1886-1890, the sewage system and water supply system was built.

In the years 1857-1867 the process of development of the Próżna street commenced. The first city tenements were built directly in the Marszałkowska street. The whole side of the Próżna street towards the Grzybowski square lasted till the end of the eighties of the 19th century. In the same time four-storey, new Renaissance tenements were built in the south-west corner of the Zielna and Próżna street.

In 1902 the Warsaw, overground telephone network was replaced with a cable network underground. In the same time in the western side of the Zielna street, southwards from the crossroads with the Próżna street, a new building of the telephone switchboard was raised with managerial offices (the old switchboard was at 10 Próżna street). The development and operating of the Warsaw telephone network was carried out by Cedergren, an association, which obtained a concession for this from the Russian government in 1901.

In the years 1906-1909 another Cedergren building was constructed,the first skyscraper in the city. It was 51,5 m high and dominated over the town until the office building of the Insurance Company "Prudential" was raised in 1933 at the Napoleon square (at present the Warszawa hotel at the Powstańców Warszawy square).

In 1922 the Cedergren buildings were taken over by Polska Akcyjna Spółka Telefoniczna and its shortened name - PAST-a became the name of both buildings.

During the Warsaw occupation by the Hitler army in September 1939 the whole quarter of buildings between the Marszałkowska, Królewska, Próżna and Zielna streets was burnt. The house next to the PAST-a building was also destroyed from a direct attack.

On 12 October 1940 the Warsaw District governor, Fischer, ordered to established three residential districts in Warsaw: German, Polish and Jewish. The Jewish district, due to the "threat of typhus epidemics" was surrounded with a high wall on 16 November 1940. The whole Próżna street was behind the wall (it closed its exit to the Marszałkowska street) and the whole Zielna street (except of the PAST-a building).

In the autumn 1941 the Germans ordered to reduce the Ghetto area and divided it into two parts along the Chłodna street. On 22 July 1942 the Germans began the Reinhardt action - until 21 September 1942 they deported and killed over 300 000 people in the Treblinka camp, and after that the Small Ghetto was liquidated and Próżna and Zielna streets were incorporated into the Polish district. The Big Ghetto was liquidated after the German Grossaktion Warschau, which was the response to the outburst of the Ghetto Resurrection (19 April - 16 May 1943).

During the Warsaw Resurrection (1 August - 2 October 1944) the whole Centre of Warsaw was in the Polish hands, with the PAST-a buildings, which had been defended with a strong group of 157 Germans. The building complex was won by the insurgents on 20 August. The combat was carried out by Rittmeister "Leliwa" Two tenements on the northern part of the tower (the south-western corner of the Zielna and Próżna streets) were destroyed in the fights.

After the capitulation of the Upraising the civilians were expelled from the town and grouped in a temporary camp in Pruszków. Some of them were sent to unfree labour to Germany, others were sent to kieleckie and krakowskie voivodships, where they were released from trains and left alone in unknown places. In October 1944 the Germans burnt the buildings, which remained standing after the fights.

On 17 January 1945 the First Polish Army occupied the town on the left river bank in the framework of the Warsaw Operation conducted by Soviet armies and the First Belarus Front.

The Council of Ministers Decree of 26 October 1945 on taking over land in the area of the capital city of Warsaw allowed more freedom for the Office of Capital Reconstruction. It was supposed to deal with the "relics of capitalism". In 1946 the Office gave an order to demolish all objects in the western side of the Marszałkowska street, including the Pruszak palace raised in 1762 or the Art Nouveau Minkowski tenement in the north-western crosswords with the Świętokrzyska street.

The urban concept of the beginning of the 50s of the 20th century assumed a demolition of all remaining development at the Zielna, Próżna and Bagno streets and then developing a new, rectangular Grzybowski square. They were supposed to be developed with social realistic buildings along the Królewska, Marszałkowska, Świętokrzyska na Twarda streets.

The effect of this plan is a line of blocks raised in 1954-1961 in the eastern side of the Marszałkowska street, at the section between the Królewska and the Świętokrzyska street.

In the beginning of the 60s of the 20th century another urban concept was realized. In 1962 the remaining houses in the Bagno street, mostly raised in the beginning of the 19th century in the period of the Congress Kingdom, were demolished. Also the tenement in the north-western corner of the Zielna and Próżna streets was demolished and instead an eleven storey residential block of flats was raised.

The whole structure of the Próżna street at the Grzybowski square was consequently decapitalized with the purpose of its technical death and the need to demolish everything completely. The city authorities wanted to do it in the middle of the eighties of the 20th century. In the last minute, in 1985, the complex of the Próżna street was enlisted in the Register of Monuments.

Compiled by: Fryderyk Szymański, APA Kuryłowicz & Associates

In 1998 the Wolf Zielna office building was completed and started to operate. The pre-war PAST-a had a company of an ultramodern office building. The design commenced the reconstruction process of the earlier neglected region of the Warsaw centre and was an evidence of abstaining from reckless decisions of the earlier period. The building perfectly suited the surrounding and gave back frontages to the streets. Despite original solutions the moderation is impressive and the careful details and perfectly selected elevation are really astonishing.