The demolition of the ‘billboard’ house at the Nuselský Bridge is being postponed. The Office lacks the necessary documents iROZHLAS
He will not break into lucrative Prague plots yet. The officials of the Prague 2 district suspended the assessment of the application due to a lack of documents. They thus postpone the owner’s intention to level the “billboard” building at Nuselský Bridge with the ground and build a multifunctional building instead. However, just before Christmas, councilors of the same office adopted a resolution on the appearance of a new modern house at the same address.
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The owner of the building – the company Jizera Invest – was given the green light to demolish the building in Božena Němcová Street in Prague from the City of Prague, and the final decision was to be made in the autumn of last year.
Will the brutalist building go to the ground?
However, the office of the Prague 2 district suspended the assessment of the application it received at the beginning of September last year. The owner did not provide the required documents. “Unfortunately, I cannot be more specific, because the administrative proceedings are not public by law. As soon as the applicant submits the required documents, the proceedings will continue, “the office’s spokeswoman Andrea Zoulová wrote to the iROZHLAS.cz server.
However, Antonín Rosa, a representative of Jizera Invest, stated that the company did not know of any documents that the office should lack. “If they are, of course we will fix it,” he said.
In the meantime, however, Prague 2 councilors approved in December new resolutionas found out by Radio DAB Prague. A study of the planned new building landed on their table, and the council had no objections. In the future, a multifunctional house from the architects’ workshop should grow in the same place Sign of four.
The ‘billboard’ house near the Nuselský bridge is in danger of being demolished. Despite the disapproval of conservationists
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Deputy Mayor Václav Vondrášek explained that they did not assess whether the current one should be demolished or not. “They sent us a study and we took note of it. We had no major reservations or comments. The new design is a bit like cubism and I would say that it fits the panorama of Prague more than the original building, “he said.
“Demolition will”
Jizera Invest, controlled by lawyer Karel Golán, continues to count on demolition. “Plans for the building are not changing. We are determined to take the announced steps with regard to the fact that the current state of the building is objectively unsatisfactory, “spokesman Rosa described to the iROZHLAS.cz server.
In addition, she would like to start building as soon as possible. But Rosa admitted that it could take ten years to complete the entire project. “Unfortunately, as everyone knows, it’s not easy. It is really a multi-year process and at the moment we are about a third, “he said.
In the past, the brutalist building of the Military Buildings in Božena Němcová Street in Prague was “famous” for a large advertising space of a telephone manufacturer, a light LED screen or a poster with photographs by Milady Horáková.
A monument or not?
The owner’s previous efforts to demolish the office building have provoked contradictory reactions. The house from 1982 stands in the Prague Monument Reserve, and the National Monument Institute also expressed its opinion on the whole matter. Their position was clear: we do not agree with the demolition, there is no compelling reason to do so.
“The building belongs to the moderate, but at the same time author-confident entrances of modern architecture into the historical environment of Prague. The authors sensitively integrated the building into the urban and architectural context of the surroundings, respected the crown cornice or the overall height of neighboring houses and naturally followed the window strips to the rhythm of the surrounding facades, “Andrea Holasová, spokeswoman for Prague’s conservationists.
“The authors sensitively integrated the building into the urban and architectural context of the surroundings, respected the crown cornice, the overall height of the neighboring houses and, of course, the window strips followed the rhythm of the surrounding facades.”
Andrea Holasová (spokesman for Prague conservationists)
However, their opinion had no effect, on the contrary. Officials from the Department of Monument Care of the City of Prague had a completely different view of the demolition and sanctified the comparison of the building with the ground with the condition of preserving the sculpture on the ground floor.
In the document obtained by the iROZHLAS.cz server, the officials came to the conclusion that the building does not show such monumental values that its preservation is necessary. “He is not an exceptional representative of the architecture of his time. The only valuable element is the sculpture on the facade of the ground floor, which the department requires to preserve, “says a binding opinion, for example.
Vít Hofman, a spokesman for the municipality, still stands behind his decision from last year, confirmed iROZHLAS.cz.
The building stands on the subway
However, I do not agree with such an assessment, for example, Pavel Karous, the architect of the Aliens and Herons project, which focuses on the protection of fine arts in public space from the period of normalization.
“It is also a technical monument. It is built on metro tunnels, which slide under the Nuselský Bridge directly below the Old Town and Vinohrady. They had to deal with a terribly complex technical problem of how to build a barracks on something that is shaking. At that time, they dealt with rubber honeycomb mats, which they bought in West Germany, and they managed to solve the problem, “he explained to Czech Radio, among others.
A giant LED screen disappears from the house at the Nuselský Bridge. The last time it lights up on New Year’s Eve
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The building at Nuselský Bridge has so far filled the pages of newspapers due to disputes over advertising space on the facade. The latter – a large LED screen – ceased to function at the end of 2020. This happened after the Prague City Council pushed the advertising operator, BigBoard, to remove it.
The dispute over advertising media has been fined by BigBoard for many years and the city. “We are very pleased to have a common ground with the city: advertising belongs to the city, but it needs to be done within the law and the rules set,” said Richard Fuxa of BigBoard last December.
Advertising is regulated in Prague in the monument reserve and partly in Prague 2. The ban applies, for example, to sails, posters, banners or advertising stands, as well as audio advertising, advertising on vehicles, distribution of leaflets or advertising disguises.
Even before the removal of the light area, the dominance of these buildings was an advertisement by Samsung, but the company itself reacted in August 2020. “We started downloading the ad when we gained doubts about the legality of the ad space and information on the final decision court regarding this advertising space, “said spokesman David Sahula at the time.
A poster measuring several hundred square meters was subsequently replaced by a photograph by Milady Horáková and then a banner promoting the Czech Basketball Federation. In September, the tarpaulin covering the two houses finally disappeared completely.
Brutalist buildings
- The Czechia has lost several brutalist buildings in recent years. He was probably the most famous Transgas in Vinohrady. Although part of the public protested against the demolition, the set of buildings of the former Gas Central Dispatch and the Ministry of Fuels and Energy is already razed to the ground.
- A similar fate befell another building of the late brutalist style – the Hotel Praha in Dejvice, Prague. Before the Sat Revolution, it was used, for example, to house foreign delegations. After the regime change, it was eventually acquired by PPF’s Petr Kellner group, which had the hotel demolished.
- There was also a telephone exchange in Dejvice, Prague, with elements of high-tech architecture and brutalism. The building was included among the major buildings in Prague 6, partly because it emphasized the very function of the building. It was demolished in May 2017.
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