Students will return to the high-rise buildings of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Brno

Brno - Students will gradually return to the building of the Brno Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, which long used to be the tallest building in the city, after a demanding reconstruction. The repairs have been prolonged and have become more expensive. Initially, it was talked about 180 million crowns. Due to poor statics, the reconstruction will ultimately cost 620 million including new equipment. This was stated today by Radana Kolčavová, spokeswoman for the Brno University of Technology.
    Currently, two floors of the building are accessible, where the student affairs office is located. However, students access it through the adjacent building. The main entrance is still under reconstruction.
    At the same time, the school has announced a tender for furniture in the rest of the building, which has a total of 19 floors. From February, students will gradually return to the other floors, and from the next academic year, the school plans full operation.
    The construction of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, which is 74 meters high, started in 1975 and was completed ten years later. It was the tallest object in Brno until the spring of 2013, when the Spielberk Tower B reached 85 meters. The AZ Tower, with a height of 111 meters, is even taller.
    Originally, the Brno University of Technology wanted to repair only the cladding of the faculty, which was supposed to be completed in 2013. However, it turned out that the statics of the building are poor, mainly due to the poor quality of the building materials and the lower load-bearing capacity of the steel elements. According to Kolčavová, after years it is no longer possible to determine who is responsible for the shortcomings.
    The school also considered completely demolishing the building in the Pod Palackého vrchem campus and building a new one in its place. However, this would be even more expensive than the reconstruction, the spokeswoman stated.