A house from the late 1860s is about to disappear from the forecourt of the Štefánik Bridge in Revoluční Street; a fence has already appeared based on a demolition plan and a notice about the permission to remove building no. 1502. The company RSJ Investments, whose owners include billionaires Karel Janeček and Libor Winkler, intends to build a multifunctional house with a public passage in the exposed location.
The original house is not listed, but according to its supporters, including the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) and the Club for Old Prague, it stands out with its richly sculpted facade “between Romantic historicism and early Neo-Renaissance” and is an example of the development of 19th century Prague architecture. The house also stands in a row of other equally old buildings on the east side of Revoluční Street.
The decision-making process took place before 2015 when RSJ Investments commissioned architect Eva Jiřičná and studio AI Design to design a new building in a visually exposed location. The investor also reported that the historic house had been insensitively converted into a center for the OÚNZ in the 1970s.
The house in Revoluční can be demolished if “valuable arts and crafts elements (four pieces of wrought-iron grilles in front of the balconies and seven consoles with a man’s head) are preserved.” According to the municipal conservationists, these are to be “preferably placed within the new building” or offered to museums.
Exactly what the new building will eventually look like is not yet clear; the AI Design studio is now modifying its earlier design, according to E15. According to board member Lukáš Musil, RSJ Investments intends to build a multifunctional building with a public arcade and urban functions in the parterre.