The demolition of the Hotel Prague is green, no one has appealed
The demolition company started clearing Hotel Praha, the demolition will start in the coming days. The town hall confirmed the decision of the Prague 6 building authority, which authorized the demolition, before the deadline expired. The building is owned by the PPF group, which wants to build a school on the premises and set up a park. Adjacent buildings can also go to the ground.
Gabriela Kočová from the demolition company APB Plzeň said that the demolition of the adjacent buildings, ie more than 60 garages, a greenhouse and the building of the southern gatehouse with a farmyard and a gate, will begin within ten days. So far, the workers have begun preparatory work – manual dismantling, clearing facilities and disconnecting utilities.
According to preliminary estimates, all demolition work, including material removal and landscaping, will take five months, according to data published on the owner’s website. The demolition of the hotel itself should take approximately three and a half months. “The modern technology of ‘cutting’ by special construction machines was chosen to remove the buildings,” said PPF spokesman Radek Stavěl. “This technology allows for rapid work progress, its use to use noise and dust, and completely replaces the blasting used,” he added.
On the site of the hotel, the owner wants to restore the park, which was in places until the seventies of last century. But the greenery will no longer be open to the public, as has been the case in the past. Instead of garages, a connection will be established with the neighboring properties and the land of the Hadovka complex. The investor plans to build an Open Gate primary school and grammar school here, modeled on the same campus in Babice near Prague.
Hotel Praha was built in the late 70’s of the last century. Until November 1989, it served the needs of the Communist Party and the Czechoslovak government. they therefore perceive it as a symbol of the pre-November era. At the beginning of last year, it was bought by a new owner with the intention of demolishing it. Immediately, a group of theorists, artists, architects and conservationists submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Culture for its declaration as a cultural monument. But not all experts agree. Architecture historian Zdeněk Lukeš, for example, stated in the press that he considered the building to be average architecture.
According to fans of the hotel, however, the building is a unique example of architecture that deviates from the period average. Works of art, decoration and interior furniture are an extraordinarily complete set of period art and design. The main architects of the building were Jaroslav Paroubek, Radko Černý and Arnošt Navrátil, many other authors appear on the generous exterior and interior design. PPF, on the other hand, points out that the construction is oversized and uneconomical.