The excavation of the pit for the concert hall in Ostrava will be completed in the spring

Ostrava - In Ostrava, the excavation for a new concert hall is expected to be completed by spring next year. This will be followed by foundation work for the building, which, along with the renovation of the House of Culture of the City of Ostrava, is expected to be completed by 2027, said Deputy Mayor Břetislav Riger (Ostravak) to ČTK.

"We have launched the first phase, which is the excavation of the construction pit. Reinforcements are being welded, which will be anchored into the ground. It should be completed by the end of March. Of course, we are trying not to waste time and we are fine-tuning small details in the project. We have a construction manager who is checking the statics and the 3D model, and we are resolving some conflicts. These are common issues that arise in construction, but we want to avoid having to deal with them in the second phase of construction," said Riger.

According to him, the second phase will involve the actual foundation of the building. However, the project is quite complex, and by the end of next year, it is not expected that the above-ground part of the concert hall will be under construction. "I think that by the end of next year we will still essentially be in that hole. Only in the following year will we go above ground, and the concert hall will begin to rise," noted Riger.

Funding for the concert hall is secured, according to him. The contract was won by a consortium of companies that offered a price of approximately 2.8 billion koruna. However, the city expects that the entire project, including equipment and technology, will cost around four billion koruna. The city has been saving money for the concert hall in a special fund, which according to the deputy mayor holds 600 million koruna. The main financial source is a loan from the European Investment Bank amounting to two billion koruna, and there is also a non-repayable financial grant from the European Commission of half a billion koruna, which is specifically earmarked for the concert hall. The Moravian-Silesian Region is expected to contribute another 300 million koruna for the construction of the hall, and the state will contribute 600 million koruna.

Therefore, the city has decided to suspend further saving of money into the fund for the construction of the concert hall. "Today, we would essentially be saving for extra work, which is uneconomical, especially in today's conditions when we have lost half a billion annually in budgeted tax allocations. I think it is sensitive enough that it is not good to unnecessarily save that money there, knowing that it will be sitting there for three years. Moreover, we already need to start utilizing the funds from the European Investment Bank, which we have to begin drawing next year," said Riger. He added that the city currently has the funds necessary for the total construction costs after accounting for all financial sources.

The appearance of the concert hall in Ostrava was presented in July 2019 when the city announced the results of the largest architectural competition in its modern history. The authors of the winning design are Steven Holl Architects from New York and Architecture Acts from Prague. The American magazine Architizer ranked the project among the top ten most anticipated buildings in the world in 2021. The new complex will be used as a musical, cultural, production, and educational facility and will also house the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava.

The concert hall is designed to have 1,300 seats. The project also includes a theater hall with a capacity of 490 seats, a chamber multifunctional hall with 515 seats, a lecture multifunctional hall with 120 seats, and an educational center with 200 seats. The complex is also expected to include a recording studio, restaurant, café, and other facilities. The city has attempted to build a new hall six times in the past, first in the 1860s and most recently in 1969.