Press Release from the Club for Old Prague regarding the intention to demolish the building No. 1601-II on the corner of Wenceslas Square and Opletalova Street

Source
Klub Za starou Prahu

Publisher
Tisková zpráva
11.11.2010 19:15

In June 2010, the Department of Culture, Heritage Preservation and Tourism of the City of Prague issued consent for the demolition of building No. 1601-II at the corner of Wenceslas Square and Opletalova Street. This surprising decision was made despite the fact that:

1) The building, constructed in 1880 and modified into its current modernist form in 1920, has undeniable architectural qualities and is preserved, including many original historical details.
2) The National Heritage Institute clearly excluded the demolition of the building in its statement, and thus the decision to demolish has no basis in the opinion of the institution, which is the guarantor of professional heritage preservation in Prague.
3) The building is in good condition from a structural perspective, and nothing prevents its use, as acknowledged even in the introduction of the structural assessment commissioned by the investor, which, nonetheless, ultimately allows for the possibility of removing the building with a curious reference to "possible future defects".
4) The building is part of one of the most significant spaces in the Prague Heritage Reserve, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, where the demolition of quality historical buildings is fundamentally excluded by the nature of protection.
5) The Department of the City Council permitted the demolition despite knowing the investor's intention to replace the five-story building with a nine-story new construction. The building in its current form and mass respects the interwar regulation of the square, which in its upper half is based on the principle of the dominance of the National Museum building and its corner towers. For these reasons, the removal of the building and its replacement with a larger new construction is a fundamental urban planning mistake with far-reaching consequences.

The Club for Old Prague considers the decision of the Department of Culture, Heritage Preservation and Tourism of the Magistrate to be incompetent and literally anti-heritage. An institution that is required by law to protect the heritage essence of the historic city is aiding cynical developer speculation with historical buildings through this decision. Of the 58 buildings on Wenceslas Square, 18 are protected as cultural monuments, while the remaining 40 remain in place only thanks to the status of the Prague Heritage Reserve, which was supposed to "protect" the building at the corner of Wenceslas Square and Opletalova Street.
The recent consent for demolitions issued by the department for the houses in the adjacent extensive block between Wenceslas Square, Příkopy, and Panská additionally shows that this "heritage" department of the City Council has essentially accepted a long-term and targeted trend of demolishing historical buildings, merging historical plots, and their redevelopment with oversized developer projects. Thus, not only the majority of buildings on Wenceslas Square are endangered, but essentially every explicitly unprotected building in the center of the historic city.
This situation is alarming and extremely dangerous. The Club for Old Prague believes that by approving the demolition of building No. 1601, which follows similar recent approvals, the Department of Culture of the City of Prague represented by Director Mgr. Jan Kněžínek has demonstrated its incompetence and indifference to the heritage values it is legally obligated to protect.

According to the Club for Old Prague, the only solution to this situation can be:

— the immediate revocation of the consent of the City of Prague for the demolition of building No. 1601-II,
— the dismissal of the director of the Department of Culture, Heritage Preservation and Tourism Mgr. Jan Kněžínek, who is responsible for this and other highly controversial heritage decisions,
— the creation of clear and transparent rules for the protection of monuments in Prague, which will preemptively exclude similar developer speculations with historical buildings.

In Prague, on November 11, 2010

PhDr. Richard Biegel, Ph.D. PhDr. Kateřina Bečková,
executive of the Club for Old Prague chairwoman of the Club for Old Prague

CLUB FOR OLD PRAGUE | Mostecká 1 | 118 00 Prague 1

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