Heritage officials are likely to permit the demolition of the Neorenaissance building on Revoluční

Prague - The Neo-Renaissance house from 1869 located at the corner of Revoluční and Nové mlýny streets seems to be facing demolition. The National Heritage Institute (NPÚ), according to the director of its regional office in Prague, Michal Zachar, has expressed consent for it. The heritage department of the Prague magistrate is examining the latest architectural version of the planned new building. "I think we shouldn't have any objections against it anymore," said his boss Jan Kněžínek to ČTK. The new building is supposed to address the missing closure of the row of houses on the waterfront on the Petrská side of Revoluční street. The Club for Old Prague is protesting against Zachar's decision.
    The planned new building should harmonize and close the more robust context of the Vltava Palace located on the opposite side of the street and the intimate scale created by the water tower and the baroque house between it and Revoluční street. "So far, brick cladding seems to work best for us," said architect Rostislav Říha from the firm working on the new construction project to ČTK. The first two floors are to house public services, with offices above them, and possibly apartments at the very top.
    The City Development Authority (ÚRM) supports the solution to the missing closure. "The new building should be in accordance with the given location through a tasteful and sensitive architectural solution," said ÚRM director Bořek Votava.
    "One side (of Revoluční street) has the Vltava Palace, while the other side has a blind gable wall. And that may be a significant consideration that we hold - this matter was consulted with the central office (NPÚ) and it's not my arbitrary decision," Zachar explained to ČTK why he allowed the demolition of the house. Between him and the ramp to Štefánik Bridge, there is still a space of about five by fifteen meters.
   "Personally, I believe that on the plot available there, this task cannot be fulfilled," said Zachar, noting that from nearby and distant perspectives, the closure is missing. "That does not mean that an historic house must be demolished because of it, especially since it is interconnected with other houses in the row," argued Kateřina Bečková, chairwoman of the Club for Old Prague. According to her, it would be possible to somehow utilize the plot between the house and the waterfront for the closure. "If I build a building five by fifteen meters there, it will be like placing a large table board there," Zachar countered.
    According to him, attempts were made to find ways to resolve the missing closure. "I saw about five variants, but it would hardly work. It simply comes off as a hybrid. I can imagine a hybrid, for example, in street development or as a solitary stand, but it's hard to do where it has to fulfill an urban planning role concerning others," Zachar explained his decision.
    He likes the proposed solution. "That is a standpoint that is more or less primarily mine, but this debate, of course, took place. Most colleagues lean towards the milder solution, which means keeping the existing house, but they do not offer further solutions," he said. "From the perspective of heritage protection, allowing demolition just because I like the new building is nonsense," Bečková believes.
    According to historian Josef Holeček, who conducted a construction-historical survey of the house and its surroundings for the owner, the building at Revoluční 1502 is preserved below average in the context of several thousand Neo-Renaissance buildings in Prague. In the late 1960s, it was abandoned and deteriorated. It was already considered for demolition back then. Reconstruction was then done, and it was converted into accommodation for nurses. "When you completely rebuild a building at the start of normalization, you utterly destroy it. In the 1990s, it was finished off," Holeček told ČTK. In 1995, the house was reconstructed again, this time into an office building. Only the statically significant structural elements and the staircase have supposedly been preserved; the original windows, doors, decorations, and stucco elements are gone.
    According to the Club for Old Prague, around 1870, today's Revoluční street was lined with a continuous row of new apartment houses with rich historicizing decor. House 1502 was the second in a row of six houses from the bridge. The first was the so-called Eliška’s Baths building. However, it was demolished in 1940 due to the construction of the bridge ramp. Thus, the house at Revoluční 1502 found itself at the edge of the street row, and towards the bridge, its gable wall was exposed.