The guardians of monuments do not like the study of the new building on Národní třída

Prague - Heritage protectors criticize the study of a new building that is set to stand on an empty lot at the corner of Národní Street and Mikulandská Street in the center of Prague. A private investor also wants to utilize the neighboring listed building on Mikulandská Street for their plans. According to representatives of the Club for Old Prague, the proposed reconstruction is too extensive. The height of the new building exceeds the acceptable limit, the club informed today on their website.
Both buildings are to be interconnected, housing a hotel. Club members understand that the empty lot needs to be developed and have no objections to connecting the new and neighboring buildings. "However, we are compelled to state that the approach of the investor and designers does not respect either the historical value of the protected monument or the urban context of the lot on Národní Street," they wrote in a statement.
Prague's heritage officers from the city hall currently have no official study. According to their director, Jan Kněžínka, the investor is consulting with the municipal heritage protectors and the National Heritage Institute about the results of the competition they conducted. "The investor is asking experts for their opinions in advance. He is doing it well," Kněžínek told ČTK. According to him, the plan is taking a more acceptable shape.
According to the club's statement, however, the investor disregards the fact that the building on Mikulandská Street is protected. Allegedly, only part of the section facing the street and the vaulted ground-floor wings in the courtyard should remain from the building. "We consider the interventions very insensitive in terms of preserving the monument," the club stated. The city hall's heritage protectors ruled out such radical reconstruction about two years ago, they added.
The planned new building, according to the club, violates the height conditions issued for the lot by the then State Heritage Institute in 2002. "The new building significantly exceeds not only the surrounding buildings but also the neighboring interwar Dunaj Palace," club members assert. The Dunaj Palace, according to them, already adversely affects the historical surroundings due to its size.
Heritage protectors have called on city hall's heritage officers to reject the study. The lot is the last gap in the center of the heritage conservation area, and the highest urban and architectural standards must be imposed on the new building, they added.
According to the club's executive Richard Biegel, the problem is that there are no binding restrictions for construction in the center. The study on the protection of the heritage conservation area was drafted back in the early 90s and has never been approved. "The situation is unsustainable and exploited," Biegel told ČTK.
The last available lot on Národní Street will likely see the construction of a five-star hotel with approximately 140 rooms. The plot was sold by the city hall two years ago for what is believed to be a record price of 234,700 crowns per square meter, totaling 183.77 million crowns. In the price map, the value of such lots was estimated at 22,090 crowns per square meter.