Having never fully recovered from World War II destruction, Warsaw has a disconnected urban core marked by the soaring Palace of Culture and Science and large, lifeless voids. ING Real Estate asked The Jerde Partnership to create a mixed-use project that would bring life back to the city center. Inspired by the historic parks that were saved from wartime destruction, Jerde organized Zlote Tarasy around an ensemble of terraces and a central plaza with an undulating glass roof that recalls tree canopies crowning the city's parks. The innovative roof simulates a draping cloth to translate the natural processes of gravity, wind and water into a complex, yet elegant, spatial surface above the plaza. The terraced retail and entertainment levels rise into upper-level office towers,while culminating below in a lively park built just below-grade, making it easily accessible from the adjacent Warszawa Centralna train station and existing pedestrian tunnels. To reconnect the urban fabric, Jerde designed Zlote Tarasy with a pedestrian network that links the train station with the historic city center, as well as additional entrances that restore the urban grid lost during the war. When it opened in February 2007, Zlote Tarasy attracted over 500,000 visitors in the first week.