The Baťa department store in Brno will be six floors taller

Brno - The Brno department store Centrum is likely to be 25 meters taller within three years. The company Orco plans to renovate the building and partially complete it according to the original design from the 1920s. The building of entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa was supposed to be the tallest modern structure in Brno at the time, but it ended up with only eight floors instead of the planned 24. It will now have 14 floors and reach 60 meters, said company spokeswoman Petra Zdeňková today to ČTK. The reconstruction, costing several tens of millions, will also involve world-renowned architect Eva Jiřičná.
    The so-called Baťa Palace, located between the streets Kobližná, Jánská, Pohořelec, and Malinovského náměstí, was built in the 1920s directly at Baťa's request. The project by his court architect Vladimír Karfík originally envisaged 24 floors. However, due to static problems and disagreements with the city administration, the Zlín shoemaker abandoned the plan and halted construction at eight floors.
    Twenty years ago, the building was added to the list of cultural monuments. Operating under the name Centrum, it served as a department store primarily for clothing, a role it still fulfills today. However, Orco plans to change the building's use. The ground floor is to be dedicated to entertainment, with a bowling alley among other features, the first floor will remain occupied by shops, offices will be located above, and newly added floors will contain apartments.
    “The project was and still is very interesting. The city of Brno will gain another unique landmark, this time of a very modern character,” Zdeňková commented on the construction. Urban planner Karel Havliš from the Faculty of Architecture at Brno University of Technology does not have such a clear opinion. He believes that it would mainly depend on how the added floors would look, whether they would disrupt the surrounding panorama, and how the company would deal with other issues, such as parking.

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> Vladimír Karfík_"the tallest skyscraper in Europe" - the department store of the Baťa company (1931)