Designed by Zaha Hadid, the tallest building in Poland is scheduled to rise above the heart of Warsaw by 2012. The luxurious €260 million apartment building will have 70 storeys and be over 250 metres high. The property, adjacent to the Warsaw Marriott Hotel, is located just across the street from Warsaw Central railway station and the 231 metre Palace of Culture and Science, currently the highest building in Poland.

The developer, Lilium, wanted a building that impressed with both its height and design. Zaha Hadid, 2004 Pritzker Prize winner and one of the most outstanding architects practising today, was invited to work on the design. Lilium purchased the site at the beginning of 2007 for almost €110 million from Polish Airlines LOT. The glass and steel Lilium Tower, as the development is currently known, will stand next to the Mariott.

For this deveopment Hadid has designed a four-wing building with double glass elevation. The top storeys will contain luxurious suites and a health and fitness club (the highest storey will include a swimming pool). Lower floors will be occupied by a quasi-hotel - apartments which (when their owners are away) will be rented as exclusive hotel rooms. According to local regulations, any kind of building may be constructed on the plot of land in question, but its height must be at least 30 metres. With 70 storeys and 250 metres of total height, this regulation will not be hard to keep. When complete it will be the fifth tallest building in Europe, though with the current development frenzy in Warsaw, who knows how long it will hold that title.

The tower will be constructed by BSR with the participation of investment funds from Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The consortium has already built a complex of apartment towers in Philadelphia, USA. BSR has two other projects underway in Poland - an estate containing 900 apartments in Kraków, and the Wilanów One complex in Warsaw which will contain more than 2,500 apartments.

Construction work on the Liliium Tower will begin at the end of 2008 and is scheduled for completion in 2012. The company is currently waiting for final planning permission to be issued.

Hadid's design thwarted the plans of a Polish developer LC Corp, who intended to build Poland's tallest building in Wrocław, the capital of the Lower Silesia region. The development, a complex of seven buildings with a total area of over 260,000 m², includes a 220-metre tower. The office, retail and residential project received a construction permit in August 2007 and is due for completion in 2010.

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