ECE will not build in Liberec, the land will probably be sold

Liberec - The company ECE Projektmanagement will not be building in Liberec. However, it will not sell the land where the shopping Gallery Liberec was supposed to be located. It will wait for the result of the arbitration it is conducting with the state regarding the construction. According to company director Josef Tobek, it is unlikely to be resolved sooner than in a year and a half. He came to Liberec to assess a competition that ECE announced for architecture students from the Technical University of Liberec. They were supposed to propose the use of the construction site, which has been idle for over two years.
    "We will not be implementing anything here anymore; we specialize in shopping centers, and building one in Liberec would no longer make sense," Tobek explained. The Gallery Liberec was to be built in the Perštýn area near the city transport terminal, and according to the original plan, the store was supposed to open at the end of 2009 or the beginning of this year. However, the opening date was postponed several times due to delays in administrative procedures. ECE ultimately halted the construction and sued the Czech Republic for damages amounting to approximately 1.8 billion crowns (70 million euros).
    The shopping gallery was to be located across the street from the Forum Shopping Center. The project, estimated at around 100 million euros (approximately 2.5 billion crowns), was also expected to address traffic in this part of the city. A roundabout near the center, which is already at the limit of its capacity, was to be replaced by a traffic light-controlled intersection. The five-story building was to be embedded into the slope, and architects planned a park on its roof. It was to provide 35,000 square meters of retail space and parking for 850 cars. Instead, there is now just a huge construction pit.
    Although ECE does not plan to build, it has decided to hold a competition for architecture students in cooperation with the Liberec University. "The subject of the competition was the design of a building or an entire complex that would show possible new uses for the location," said Tobek. According to him, the projects should build upon what the city already offers and complement it appropriately. "The project should also be realizable, even though its authors are unlikely to see it come to fruition," he added. The winner of the competition will receive 60,000 crowns, and two other works will also be awarded. Seven students participated in the competition. The jury will announce the winner in the fall.
    The Faculty of Art and Architecture is the second youngest faculty at the Technical University of Liberec. It was founded in 1994. According to the faculty's vice-dean, Jiří Suchomel, similar competitions for students are on the rise. "In recent years, there have been about two each year," Suchomel said. In the past, students have proposed things like a new hotel near the Souš reservoir in the Jizera Mountains, a lookout tower that is to be built near Osečná in Liberec, or a memorial for the victims of the Holocaust.