The shape of modern day Warsaw is ultimately a result of the vast damage it had suffered in the World War II, the subsequent reconstruction, remodelling and the growth of the city in the next decades. Even the Old Town is in fact new. The façades of burgher houses were meticulously reconstructed, but everything behind them was adapted to contemporary standards.
The war didn’t however affect many of the buildings erected in the 20s and the 30s, when Warsaw was booming as the capital of the republic. This resulted in the construction of numerous monumental public ediffices (National Museum, BGK Bank headquarters, SGH college, various ministries), first skyscrapers (Prudential House), ultra-modern sport facilities (AWF sports college in Bielany area and the racing track in Służewiec) and entire new neighbourhoods with luxury villas and apartment houses as well as affordable co-operative housing (Żoliborz, Saska Kępa). All of these represent a wide range of styles – from romantic ‘manor house’-style, evoking Polish country life, to extreme avant-garde.Immediately after the war, the city started to fill not only with reconstructed buildings, but also with entirely new ediffices, catering to the needs of the new, communist regime