New Hrádek is looking for an architect for the conversion of a windmill into a lookout tower

New Hrádek (Náchod) - The town of New Hrádek in the Náchod region has begun seeking an architect for the transformation of a non-functional wind turbine on Šibeník hill into an observation tower. The architectural competition for the municipality is organized by the Petr Parléř Society, and architects are to submit their designs by September. The winner is expected to be announced in the fall. This was stated by the mayor of New Hrádek, Zdeněk Drašnar. The observation tower from the former windmill would be the first of its kind in the Czech Republic. People should be able to see the Krkonoš mountains, the Polabí region, and the Králický Sněžník from it.
    The base of the observation tower will be a thirty-meter steel tube from the last of the four wind turbines that were built near New Hrádek about 20 years ago. Architects have no restrictions on the materials used. The municipality has set a construction cost limit of nine million crowns excluding VAT. In addition to the observation tower itself, the town hall also plans to build access roads, infrastructure, and facilities for the tower.
    To support tourism in the region, the municipality wants to obtain a grant for the construction of the observation tower. According to the mayor, it is not financially feasible for the municipality to build the tower without it. Therefore, the municipality has registered the construction of the observation tower in the upcoming cross-border project aimed at creating a ridge path for hikers from German Saxony through the Krkonoš mountains to Praděd in the Jeseníky mountains, which will apply for a grant in the new programming period from 2014 to 2020.
    The architect selected by the municipality from the competition will subsequently create the project documentation for the observation tower. If everything goes smoothly, the construction could begin in 2016.
    The wind farm with four turbines with a total capacity of 1.6 megawatts was built on Šibeník in 1995 by a private investor. However, the prototype device never entered permanent operation due to technical difficulties and noise issues. The park was later acquired by ČEZ, which wanted to build one large turbine on its site. This plan also fell through. ČEZ eventually dismantled three turbines and sold one tube without a rotor, along with the park's land and the transformer station for 350,000 crowns to New Hrádek last year.
    The last new observation tower in the Hradec Králové region opened last October on Milíř Hill near Vysoká nad Labem in the Hradec area. The investor for the 30-meter high structure worth five million crowns was the municipality. In October 2010, a 17-meter-high observation tower was opened on Anenský Hill in the Orlické mountains ridge. In 2009, a tower over 30 meters high was also opened for tourists on Hnědý Hill above Pec pod Sněžkou.