Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak

Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak studied at Faculty of Architecture, Wrocław University of Technology. The recorded working language is Polish. Works named in the authority record are House of the Scientist and Manhattan estate, Wrocław. Distinctions recorded are Silver Badge of Association of Polish Architects, Commander of the Order of Polonia Restituta, Gold Cross of Merit and Silver Cross of Merit.

• Name — Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak • Birth Name — Jadwiga Grabowska • Born — 29 October 1920 • Birthplace — Tarnawce, Second Polish Republic • Died — 4 June 2018 • Place of death — Wrocław, Third Polish Republic • Education — Wrocław University of Technology • Significant Buildings — * Scientist's House (1957) • Grunwald Square Housing Estate (1967–1975) • Church of Christ the Redeemer of the World (1996) • Significant Projects — Manhattan Estate

Grabowska-Hawrylak was born in the village of Tarnawce in Eastern Galicia. She grew up in Przemyśl, in southeastern Poland, as the daughter of two teachers. She graduated from high school in 1939. In 1945, after World War II, she moved to Wrocław. The city had been within German borders since 1740, but was returned to Poland after the war, when 60% of it was in ruins. Rebuilding the city was secondary to rebuilding the more thoroughly destroyed capital of Warsaw, and did not begin until 1952. In 1950, Grabowska-Hawrylak graduated from the Wrocław University of Technology, after having completed a thesis on interior design. Her first professional work was a historic reconstruction of Burgher houses in Wrocław's market square. She joined Miastoproject-Wrocław, the government-operated architectural group for the city, and worked on residential projects in the city centre. Her work – especially "Manhattan", the residential estate at Plac Grunwaldzki, perhaps her best-known project – became emblematic of brutalism, but unintentionally so: her planned white balconies filled with greenery were built with grey concrete and left unpainted. The estate went through a full renovation in 2015, which saw the building painted in the planned, white colours. Her unbuilt works include a tourist centre in Como, Italy, residential development in Manila, the Philippines, and a New Urbanist housing estate in Oleśnica, in southwestern Poland. After decades in architecture, she began quilting in the 1980s. Her last project was the postmodern Millennium Memorial Church of the Diocese of Wrocław, built in 1996.

Her husband was Henryk Hawrylak, a mining machinery specialist. She had three children: Katarzyna, Maciej, and Paweł.

* • Name — Location — Years(s) — Description — Photo • Scientist's House (Dom Naukowca) — Wrocław — 1957 — Ten-storey residential building built to house affiliates of Wrocław universities; the first modernist building in the city; designed as part of the Miastoproject group — • Maisonette House(Mezonetowiec) — Wrocław — 1958–1960 — On Kołłątaja Street; nine storeys, with ground floor retail with duplex apartments on floors above; registered as a protected historic monument in 2017, renovated in 2022. — • Plac Grunwaldzki housing estate — Wrocław — 1967-1972 — Six 16-storey residential buildings built in the centre of Wrocław, near the Grunwaldzki Bridge; buildings are linked with commercial pavilions; entire complex is built on a platform above parking infrastructure; nicknamed "Manhattan" or "Sedesowce" (toilet seat buildings) due to the distinctive, rounded shape of balconies — • Church of Christ the Redeemer of the World (Kościół Chrystusa Odkupiciela Świata) — Wrocław — 1996 — On Bałtycka Street; an active Catholic church designed in part for the Millennial of the Diocese of Wrocław — *