IPR will cut the grills between the statues towards Vyšehradská Street

Prague - The Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) will today at 18:00 remove the grilles towards Vyšehradská Street in its premises in Emauzích. The sculptures located between the grilles will subsequently be restored. IPR director Ondřej Boháč said this to ČTK today. In the future, other fences will also disappear from the vicinity of the buildings, and the area will be opened to the public. IPR will also reconstruct the buildings designed by architect Karel Prager.

The grilles appeared among the sculptures by Miloslav Chlupáč in 2008, creating a sort of fence that enclosed the area. Chlupáč collaborated with architect Prager on the work. Once the grilles are removed, IPR will begin searching for restorers to repair the sculptures. The exact costs are not yet known.

According to Boháč, other barriers are also expected to disappear from the premises in the future, and it should be passable. This concerns, for example, the fences around the buildings towards Podskalí and Na Moráni Street.

Three of Prager's buildings, where IPR is located, also await repairs. These buildings have, among other issues, problems with their structural integrity and leaks into their construction. IPR will first have the condition of the buildings assessed, and the costs and complexity of repairs will depend on the results of this assessment. However, the repair costs should amount to hundreds of millions of crowns. When the repairs will start has not yet been determined. The buildings from the late 1960s were entrusted to IPR by the city council as of January 1 of this year.

IPR is a municipal institution that deals with urban planning and urbanism. Among other things, it is preparing a new urban plan for Prague. The city has had a similar organization since 1920 when the State Regulatory Commission for Prague and its surroundings was established. From 1961 to 1994, there was the so-called Office of the Chief Architect, which was succeeded by the City Development Office. This was changed into the current IPR in 2014. Its annual budget is around 300 million CZK.