At first glance, Prague has plentiful areas of greenery although some observers are beginning to question the extent of the damage being done to Prague’s greenery by increased construction and a lack of protection from the city.

In the latest hit to the long-troubled City Project in Prague 4, the UNESCO Committee for World Heritage plans to suggest that the height of two of the development’s high-rise buildings be scaled down from the original designs.

The recommendations were discussed in July at a UNESCO convention in Quebec, an outline of which was recently published on the committee’s Web site. According to the summary, UNESCO recommends that the two buildings, which are currently designed to be 80 and 104 meters high, be built no higher than 60 to 70 meters, respectively. UNESCO authorities say they are preparing an official document outlining their suggestions for the City Project skyscrapers, which will be delivered to the Culture Ministry for review.

The targeted buildings are part of an estimated 1.4 billion euro ($2.1 billion/34.4 billion Kč) redevelopment plan for the Pankrác section of Prague 4, which has been hyped by developers as a “city within a city” and includes administrative, retail and luxury residential components. Two previously existing Pankrác high-rises, City Tower and City Empiria, were also renovated as part of the project.

Officials from ECM Real Estate Development Group, which helms the development, say one of the buildings is planned as a hotel, while the other, to be called City Epoque, will be divided into private luxury apartments, many of which have already been sold.

In development since 2001, the City Project has long been opposed by local civic organizations who feel its modern appearance will detract from the city’s historical character, and UNESCO, which previously warned City Hall officials that by permitting the skyscrapers’ construction, Prague could risk being deleted from the world heritage list.

“We aren’t against the construction of modern high-rise buildings in Prague, as long as they don’t visually impact the historic city center,” said Martin Skalský of Arnika, a local NGO that has actively protested the project. “If you can stand at Prague Castle and see skyscrapers on the horizon … it would damage the city’s skyline.”

But ECM officials say they aren’t concerned with the most recent developments in the ongoing dispute, with zoning permits for both high-rises having been issued in June. While UNESCO can provide guidance on historic and cultural preservation for city officials, it has no legal governing authority. In order for ECM to consider altering their existing development plans, it would be necessary for the Culture Ministry and City Hall to intervene.

“I don’t think there will be any serious pressure from any legal authority to change the shape of the building at this point,” said Tomáš Vlček, ECM’s vice president for sales and marketing. “Maybe these UNESCO recommendations can be something that can be applied to future projects and for future investors, but [City Project] is an ongoing project.”

Vlček went on to note that published reports have blown the dispute out of proportion, and that the most recent UNESCO appeal was part of “a very weak, uncultured approach” by local civic organizations, including Občanská iniciativa Pankráce (which he says is currently in the process of appealing the issuance of the buildings’ zoning permits) and Arnika.   

Skalský said his organization fears that approval of the skyscrapers’ construction would attract new developers with plans for new high-rises. He noted that the dispute is particularly frustrating because of the difficulty in establishing a series of solid regulations for all new developments due to the city’s varied terrain.

“Clearly, a building that’s constructed on top of a hill is going to have a much different visual impact than one built on the river,” he said. “Every plan for every new building must be assessed.”

Culture Ministry spokesman Jan Cieslar said the ministry expects to receive UNESCO’s official position in writing by the end of the month, and therefore would not comment on it further. Existing reports, he said, were based primarily on Web-based information and an early draft of the UNESCO document. He noted that ministry officials have considered organizing a formal discussion with City Hall once the document is received.

Petr Janyška, primary delegate of the Czech Republic to UNESCO in Paris, said, “The Prague case is similar to many situations in European cities such as Cologne and Vienna. UNESCO is not against new developments, but cities must know how to manage them and their historical centers.

While Skalský said he realizes plans for the City Project skyscrapers might be too far along to halt entirely, his organization would be content with merely decreasing their height.

“If the buildings are less than 60 meters tall, we would consider it a suitable compromise,” he said. “There’s still a lot of room to change the plans.”

But ECM officials say that being forced to reduce the planned buildings’ height could lead to a series of additional complications.

“To lower a building by nearly a third … that’s like knocking the head off of a statue,” Vlček said.

Author: Curtis M. Wong

You can find the entire article HERE.

We very much appreciate that mission of UNESCO and ICOMOS has arrived in Prague. But we are deeply dismayed that in connection with your visit Mr Jan Kněžínek, director of the Prague Conservation Department responded to journalists‘ questions with the following statements:

The situation in Prague is very serious. In a sense, Prague is at the crossroads, and decision making is taking place just now in which direction its future constructional and urbanistic development will proceed. Opinion of you, renowned specialists with rich experience, and respected representatives of a world institution, is extremely valuable in this decision making, and, within the meaning of the international Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Heritage it is, after all, also necessary.

Prague was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992. Since then, we have been witnesses of contradictory events. A number of important monuments was sensitively reconstructed and is cared for, further similar actions are under preparation. The Capital City of Prague emphasises, for example, reconstruction of the Charles Bridge, introduction of gas lighting in the historic centre, exchange of statues on the Bridge Tower, reconstruction of the Fürstenberg Garden, and other excellent projects.

On the other hand, there is a serious problem that neither Prague Heritage Site management plan nor historic centre regulation plan was prepared in the course of the last 15 years. In this respect, the Prague Land Use Plan is completely insufficient, because it is drawn up on a too large scale, and it does not enable, for example, regulation of the height of buildings or specific parameters of the individual buildings. This situation creates an environment where appearance of the city is not determined by a publicly available strategy which can be influenced by various groups of city users as well as by general public, but by partial decisions of officials based on their secret agreements with investors and developers. The process is fully non-transparent and, by all accounts, massive corruption is obviously taking place therein, too.

Besides Prague successes in the area of conservation care, it is necessary to mention also unsuccessful actions and numerous serious failures. For example, extensive destruction of roof landscape is taking place in the historic centre, because of conversions and extensions of loft areas of houses into official and housing units. Underground garages are being planned or under construction in many places of the historic centre. In recent years, a number of buildings was insensitively converted into offices, hotels, and restaurants, and their inner layout, as well as many valuable architectonic elements, were destroyed. It is possible to mention, for example, construction of the Holliday Inn hotel on the Vltava river bank, partial demolition of Heger brickyard in Kampa, or construction of the Palladium shopping centre in the Republic Square, to name a few.

In addition to devastation of the Prague architecture, we are alarmed also by the fact that our city is gradually and more and more converted into outdoor museum for tourists, scene lacking life and focusing on immediate commercial effect only. The centre of Prague is becoming depopulated, and the city is slowly loosing its authenticity, natural structure and functions. This increases the pressure on further adaptation of buildings to commercial activities concentrating on foreign visitors.

An indicator of the current situation of Prague is the fact that Prague, which is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful cities of the world, ended on the 73rd place only in the quality of life survey carried out by the organisation Mercer Human Resource Consulting among inhabitants of 215 world cities annually. This gives an account of disappointment of the inhabitants with the development of the capital city and of high number of problems they are wrestling with. The city is beautiful, but it does not offer high-quality life.

In Prague today, many discussions are taking place that the historic city cannot be preserved in unchanged form, that we need the current architecture and buildings which will represent our time in the future. This is undoubtedly true. However, at the same time, it is also true that a success in construction of a high-quality contemporary building was not achieved in Prague yet. Attempts to place new buildings into the territory of the Prague Heritage Site have ended catastrophically – It is sufficient to look at the office building on the Charles Square, shopping centre Myslbek, or planned project of development of the vacant space next to Tesco department store in the National street.

We regard projects of construction of high-rise buildings in the historic centre of Prague, or in its protective zone, as the height of commercial intentions which would destroy the current unique values of our city, and change its nature forever. Approximately since 2000 we perceive efforts to surround the centre of Prague by high-rise buildings which would offer nice view of the historic city. However, this idea has its reverse side, because the historic centre, and, especially, elevated places, such as Petřín or Prague Castle, will offer only view of a number of more or less successful towers on the city horizon.

We consider statements about the "present-day counterbalance of the Prague Castle" as dangerous, because they confirm that construction of new city dominants, and suppression of the historic ones, is planned. Commercial interest in this construction, and pressures of investors on implementation of the individual projects, are enormous. For illustration, we can mention the announced price of a luxury flat in the highest floor of the planned residential house Epoque (the “V” building) in the Pankrác plain, which should reach 100 million Czech crowns (3.8 million eur).

The Epoque projects in the Pankrác plain are not the only threat to the Prague skyline. The investors presented a project of construction of two 150-metres-high tower buildings in Holešovice, which would thus rise above towers of the St. Vitus Cathedral in the Prague Castle. Construction of high-rise buildings is planned also in Modřany, and, possibly, other, yet unpublished, projects are under preparation, too. In fact, permission of construction of high-rise buildings in Pankrác would become material, as well as legal, precedent for decision-making concerning other buildings. The Pankrác plain is located in the buffer zone of the Prague Heritage Site, where no new dominant buildings were permitted yet, and unwritten moratorium concerning this kind of buildings applied here until now. If one permit is issued, other investors will refer to it, and, by course of the Czech legislation, they will be entitled to issuance of a building permit.

In this connection, we have to point out that the Czech Republic authorities completely fail in the process of permitting the construction of Epoque buildings in the Pankrác plain. The World Heritage Committee was not informed about the key plan influencing the panorama and scale of the city. By this, the Czech Republic breached the international convention.

The present situation is not satisfactory, in particular because of the fact that the Czech Republic does not regard the statements concerning construction of the high-rise buildings, issued hitherto by international institutions, seriously at all. In March 2007, UNESCO and ICOMOS experts visited Prague. They called for reassessment of the construction projects in the Pankrác plain, and recommended reduction of the height of the planned buildings. Further, the experts expressed their opinion to that effect that Prague's communication with the public is insufficient, and that the projects should be amended in order that the lower part of the planned buildings offered space usable by local inhabitants. In May 2007, Michael Petzet, President of ICOMOS International, sent a letter to Pavel Bém, Mayor of Prague, asking him to stop the process of permitting the construction of Epoque buildings. In July 2007, the World Heritage Committee expressed its opinion to the problem. It expressed serious concern because of the proposed projects in the buffer zone of the Prague Heritage Site, and called for reassessment of these plans.

Nothing of that happened. Both the Capital City of Prague and the Ministry of Culture claim that the above-mentioned statements of experts are nothing serious for Prague. Allegedly, the planned construction in the Pankrác plain does not interfere with any of the protected values of Prague, and the procedure of review of the situation from UNESCO and ICOMOS is said to be a mere formality.

Nothing changed also in the relation of the authorities to the public. Citizens of the Czech Republic, and even of Prague itself, are not informed about the plans under preparation, public discussion is not taking place, and, according to our information, experts with different opinions were not involved in preparation of the conceptions. All documents have been prepared in secrecy.

The authorities did not stop the permitting procedures, and they continue with them. At the present time, the City Part Prague 4 is conducting the zoning permission procedure. We are afraid that, with the highest likeliness, the authority will have issued its decision before the World Heritage Committee will have the possibility to express its opinion to the problem on its next regular meeting.

There are emerging even speculations, expressed by leading representatives of the city and state, whether it is advantageous or necessary for Prague to stay in the World Heritage List.

In spite of the fact that our organisations are engaged, predominantly, in protection of the environment, we regard as its inseparable part in Prague not only nature as such, but also architecture, landscape character, human scale of the city, its visual beauty, and quality of public spaces. We consider defence of these values as part of our mission. Last but not least, we advocate the right of citizens to express their opinions and objections and to participate in decision-making processes.

Considerable hopes of no small part of Prague's inhabitants and experts, as well as media, are pinned on your mission. We know that you cannot order the Czech Republic anything, and that big portion of responsibility and work rests with us, our authorities, and our politicians. In spite of that, your visit is very important, and your opinion is being expected impatiently. In Prague, there is a custom that politicians and authorities make their decisions, in most cases, according to their own aims and priorities, and they can ignore objections of the public. Through that, irreversible damaging of public interests and generally accepted values is often taking place, because of personal economic or political aims. Now, when a battle is fought for values and further development of Prague which does not belong to us only, but is a world heritage, this can be different, at last.

We appreciate interest of UNESCO and ICOMOS in Prague and believe that the opinion of the World Heritage Committee, which will result from the conclusions of the monitoring mission, will help Prague to choose the right compromise between its development and protection of unique universal values.

Letter of this content was handed over to director of World Heritage Center Mr. Francisco Bandarin and representative of ICOMOS International Mr. Bruno Maldoner, who participated in reactive monitoring mission in Prague and they are investigating whether Czech republic cares adequately of Prague, inscribed on World Heritage List.

Letter is signed by: Arnika (Martin Skalský), Atelier for the Environment (Petr Kužvart), Civic Association of Pankrac (Marie Janoušková), Citizens Afflicted by North-south Artery, (Alžběta Rejchrtová) and Pankrac Society (Zdeněk Holeček).

Author: Martin Skalský