Velké Meziříčí has selected a proposal for the reconstruction of the square after six years of discussions

Velké Meziříčí – Velké Meziříčí selected a proposal for the reconstruction of the historic square after six years of discussions and numerous disputes. This week, the councilors decided that the city should initiate cooperation with architect David Mikulášek and sign a contract with him for the completion of the architectural study. His design was rated the best in the competition five years ago. The project is expected to take about two more years, said mayor Alexandros Kaminaras (for the Joint VM) to ČTK today.

In recent years, preparations for the repairs of the square and adjacent streets halted due to disagreements within the leadership of Velké Meziříčí over the selection between two of the highest-rated competition proposals. According to a later statement by the Office for the Protection of Competition, the competition was not even initiated due to legal errors.

The mayor described the council's recent decision as a significant step forward. He noted that, for example, the sewer under the square has long exceeded its lifetime. "However, if I were to look at this very optimistically, the physical reconstruction would begin around the turn of 2023 and 2024," he said. A several-years-old proposal for modifications to the square, which the city wants to utilize, will need to be updated and compared with current standards and technical regulations, according to the mayor.

Discussions on how to return to the proposals for the modification of the square that emerged from the competition have been ongoing since last November, according to the mayor. Some councilors wanted to bring all three authors of the highest-rated proposals back into the game. "Which would cost the city a lot of money and would only delay the decision-making," he believes.

The architectural competition for modifications to the center took place in 2016, with 16 proposals submitted. However, a larger portion of councilors rejected proceeding with the winning proposal by Mikulášek. The then-mayor Radovan Necid (Right Meziříčí) resigned due to disputes. In a local referendum in 2017, a majority of voters called for negotiations with the winner of the competition, but the results were not binding for the councilors. They selected the proposal from MCA atelier, which finished second in the competition. However, the city did not sign a contract with them either.

Kaminaras, who is also an architect, has been leading the city of 11,500 inhabitants since February last year. He replaced Josef Komínek from the ČSSD.