Karlovy Vary have set the salary for the city architect and are looking for an office for him

Karlovy Vary - The Director of the Architecture Office of the City of Karlovy Vary will be placed in the 14th pay grade, with the possibility of receiving an additional personal reward up to the amount of the basic salary. The office, which the city has established, is set to start working in March, but it will still be necessary to find a temporary location for it, said the city mayor Petr Kulhánek (KOA) to reporters today.

The basic salary for Petr Kropp, a Czech architect currently living in the Netherlands, will be about 37,000 koruna. According to Kulhánek, the city initially wanted to establish a contractual salary, but that is no longer permitted by law. He added that even so, the salary will be significantly lower than what the architect currently has. Further expenses will go toward the other employees of the office.

"We are counting on an initiation phase, during which it will be a small team that will not have more than five people. And at the same time, depending on how the activities of the City Architect's Office actually prove themselves, a development phase will follow, which was very rapid in Brno, for example. But we will see what it will be like in the conditions of Karlovy Vary," Kulhánek said.

According to the city's plan, the office should focus on architecture, urban planning, public space, and communication with the public. For instance, it should address the future of the broader city center from the former Mattoni bottling plant to the meander of the Ohře River.

For this year, the city has allocated four million koruna in its budget for the operation of the office. Until the reconstruction of the former school on Jana Palacha waterfront is completed, the city wants to find temporary spaces where the office can be located. According to Kulhánek, this may involve renting spaces in the right part of Milada Horáková Square.