Prague has announced an architectural competition for the Industrial Palace

Prague - Prague has announced an architectural competition for the reconstruction of the burned Industrial Palace and the construction of an underpass beneath this palace. Milan Richter (ODS), the deputy mayor, stated this to ČTK.
The city is accepting architectural proposals until May 14. The three best designs will receive financial rewards. At the same time, the city has announced a tender for ensuring technical supervision on this construction.
    The goal of the competition is to create an architectural design and methodology for the reconstruction of the palace and the construction of the underpass. The main criterion for evaluating the proposals will be the quality of the overall solution, authenticity of execution, and the quality of proposed materials, constructions, and technologies, which must also meet current safety standards and conditions for issuing a building permit.
    Anonymous proposals will be evaluated by a jury, which will include four representatives of the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) – Jan Aulík, Miroslav Cikán, Aleš Lapka, and Milena Vitoulová – as well as three representatives of the city, namely Jiří Toman, director of the municipal investor department, Jan Kněžínek, director of the culture department, and František Hoffman (KSČM), chairman of the control committee.
    The winner of the competition will receive a financial reward of 600,000 crowns, the second place will earn 400,000 crowns, and the third will receive 200,000 crowns.
    In addition, the metropolis has started looking for a company that would ensure engineering activities and technical supervision for this construction. Interested parties can apply until April 6. The estimated value of this contract is 60 million crowns.
    The city has been discussing the announcement of the competition since last summer. However, due to discussions with the ČKA, the approval of the tender documentation was delayed. After the architectural competition, the city will still need to announce a tender for the construction contractor. Richter had previously estimated that construction work could begin this year.
    The costs for the restoration of the palace, including the construction of the underpass, were previously estimated by the city to be around 1.5 billion crowns. The completion may be complicated by unresolved disputes between Prague and the tenant of the Exhibition Grounds, Incheba. Currently, the metropolis is striving to negotiate an agreement with Incheba to terminate the lease by December 31 of this year. The tenant of the Exhibition Grounds has previously stated that they do not agree to leave.