The Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University will build a new center for 400 million

Prague - The Faculty of Arts at Charles University will build its new center with educational and conference spaces and a library near Prague's main train station. It will be created through the reconstruction and expansion of two buildings, whose acquisition by the university was investigated by the police and has gone to court. The costs for the facility, including equipment, will be around 400 million crowns. This was reported today by the daily E15.

The buildings are located on Opletalova Street near the intersection with Bolzanova. "The facilities on Opletalova Street should partially compensate for the spatial deficit of the Faculty of Arts. They will be used for teaching, scientific activities, conference and representative purposes, and there will be a library accessible to the professional public, the Jan Opletal Library, and a café," said the faculty spokesperson Petr Kukal to the newspaper.

The architect of the project is Atelier K2. The faculty has so far requested the building authority to issue a zoning decision. "By October 2019, the project preparation, including documentation for the selection of a contractor, will be completed. We expect the tender process to be completed by mid-2020, and subsequently, the implementation will begin and last for three years," added the spokesperson.

The faculty plans to put the buildings into operation by mid-2023. The investment is to be funded by a fund prepared at the Ministry of Education. The main headquarters of the Faculty of Arts at Palach Square is also undergoing a total reconstruction, which is to be completed in 2019. Another building of the Faculty of Arts at Celetná Street is also being renovated.

The university acquired the properties on Opletalova Street in 2010. The seller was the company Apuro, which had acquired them from Czech Railways three years earlier. Due to the circumstances of the transaction, eight people have been summoned before a still unresolved court case. While the price at which the railways sold the buildings was allegedly deliberately undervalued according to the indictment, the university reportedly overpaid for the properties by more than one hundred million crowns. All the defendants among the experts and university representatives deny the charges.