About a third of the former printery in Opletalova has already been demolished

Prague - About a third of the former printing house in Opletalova Street in Prague was demolished over the weekend, and the demolition will take longer. Due to falling debris, workers had to stop traffic in that part of the street several times during the day. According to František Polák, spokesman for Metrostav, which is conducting the demolition, it is a very difficult operation. The company has reportedly deployed the best technology and workers, and the demolition in the center of Prague must not endanger pedestrians in any case. Meanwhile, pieces of walls were falling onto the sidewalk. The remains of the building were in a state of emergency; the demolition was ordered on Friday by the construction department of Prague 1.
    The demolition began on Friday afternoon. It was originally planned to complete everything by Saturday; this morning, Polák told ČTK that it would finish over the weekend. "The work schedule is at least three days, rather a week," however, warned the head of the construction department of Prague 1, Oldřich Dajbych, who came to inspect the progress of the work today. The entire above-ground part of the building is supposed to be removed by Monday.
    A special excavator with giant scissors began demolishing the gable at about the third-floor height around noon today. During the afternoon, half of the wall facing the street disappeared, leaving only about one floor above ground. The same amount was removed from the wall at the back of the building.
    Initially, only the sidewalk under the building and part of the roadway were cordoned off. Although the excavator was dumping debris towards the inside of the building, pieces of walls were falling onto the opposite sidewalk, where people were walking and curious onlookers were lingering. Workers therefore stopped passersby several times and also controlled traffic on the road.
    "It is an extraordinarily difficult operation that must not be rushed," said Polák. The entire structure is in a state of emergency, according to him. The wall facing the street sways whole during the demolition, and workers are trying to reduce the dust by spraying water from a hose.
    The owner of the building is the company Flow East, which also owns the neighboring building at the corner of Opletalova Street and Wenceslas Square. The investor wants to build a new structure on the site of this building, the former printing house, and on the plot in the courtyard. Some architects and heritage protectors opposed the demolition of the corner building in the past, and the public also protested against it. The investor aims to obtain all necessary permits by the end of this year, after which they would start with the demolition and subsequently with construction.
    The remains of the printing house, like the corner building, are not a cultural monument; however, the printing house was one until 2008, when the then-owner requested its removal after having demolished a large part of the building. The Ministry of Culture granted this request, as there was nothing left to protect; today, only the land is protected as a historic site.
    The building of the printing house has been abandoned for many years, and since 2006, when construction work was briefly conducted there, it also lost part of its facade in the geometric Art Nouveau style. The remains are of a building constructed in 1919, which housed, among others, the National Listy. Projects for its reconstruction emerged as early as the 1990s; architects from the DaM studio planned to preserve not only the architecturally valuable facade but also the unique marble staircase and arches; however, the building later changed owners, and their plans for its future also changed.