Plzeň will award the architect Hanuš Zápal prize

Plzeň - Plzeň's mayor Miroslav Kalous announced an architectural competition for the Hanuš Zápal Award. The award, named after the significant Plzeň architect, will be given to an individual or team for the most interesting building constructed in Plzeň between 1990 and 2005. Originally, the competition was to be held annually. However, it turned out that a yearly period is too short, and therefore this year the jury will assess nominations for buildings from 1990 onwards. Subsequently, the competition will be announced in four-year cycles, Kalous told CTK.
The competition had already been announced once for a one-year cycle, but none of the three submitted proposals were selected by the jury. The rules of the competition were then re-evaluated, and the time frame was expanded, said city hall spokesperson Zdenka Kubalová. Part of the award is a prize of one hundred thousand for the author of the work. The Hanuš Zápal Award will be presented by the mayor on October 19, 2006.
"The purpose of announcing this competition is to find and evaluate the highest quality building representing architectural culture in Plzeň," said Kalous. Anyone can submit a proposal for the award in writing to the Department of Concept and Development of the City of Plzeň. The deadline is September 12. The nominated architectural work must be located within the administrative territory of Plzeň, and its completion must have occurred between January 1990 and December 2005. The award is not dependent on the permanent residence or nationality of the author.
For the first time this year, the award has become the mayor's award. In previous years, it was part of the Building of the Year competition and was awarded to, for example, the authors of the Hannah department store on Americká Street and the authors of E-Centrum on Guldener Street.
Hanuš Zápal (1885 to 1964) was a significant Plzeň architect. According to his designs, a number of schools were built in Plzeň and the surrounding area - for example, the commercial academy, Masaryk School, Beneš School in Plzeň, and a school in Plasy. Zápal also designed the Plzeň crematorium, a theater storage facility, and the Czech Brethren Church in Kralovice among other projects. He also designed memorial plaques and monuments, and he did not neglect the care of monuments. In the field of heritage restoration, Zápal played a significant role in the rescue and restoration of Santini's building in Mariánská Týnice near Kralovice.