Prague - Brno wants to overtrump Prague's highest skyscraper, City Tower, which is 109 metres high.
"Please build it higher than 110 metres," Brno's Mayor Roman Onderka urged investors at a rountable debate "Can Brno have its Manhattan?", held last Monday, May 12.
The mayor is sure Brno can have it. His office found attractive locations where investors can use billions to plan a building over 50 metres high. Those zones are located on rays radiating from the outer city center to the south, west and north. The center of the city is off limits for such developments, because there are height constrains for any new building.
"A perfect place for skyscrapers"
Brno has been promoting the south of the metropolis as a perfect place fo skyscrapers for years. The city plans a new center with housing, pedestrian streets with shops, offices and entertainment there. Another place for high-rises could be on the new university campus in Bohunice and in the surrounding area.
There have been plans for the past two years to move the main railway station south of the center. If the planned relocation goes through, there will be that much more reason to develop the area around the new train station.
"Skyscrapers are an integral part of the new modern face of the fast developing city of Brno," says the mayor.
Clusters instead of lonely giants
Brno residents agree that modern skyscrapers would suit the city, according to an opinion poll set up on the municipal web pages as well as via the local press.
"Three quarters of the respondents said they wanted to have skyscrapers in their city. People prefer groupings of skyscrapers to solitary buildings," said Marie Zezulková who works at the city hall.
People would not mind single standing skyscrapers if they were built by outstanding and prominent architects. Brno residents would not like to see skyscrapers in the center - the south is considered to be the ideal place.
First two in 2009
The first two skyscrapers in the southern part of the city will be finished in June 2009. One of them should be a 20-story-high building, the second one will be a 16-story hotel. Those two will be joined later by an 85-meter-high tower.
There are two more serious candidates for building high-rises, says Dana Wendscheová from the city planning unit.
The mayor was joined at Monday's roundtable by thirty architects and investors. They want to build high, but they are coming up against technical and bureaucratic obstacles. Some of the investors say that building high-rises is like running in circles.
"The municipality told us that we could start the constructions once we have the sewage system finished and once we get the permission from the municipality. We are not able to get the permission, because while we were running around various offices new buildings were planned and the sewage system has to be now suitable for all three building," says Jiří Maršálek from Prosperity, one of the companies that will start developing the south of the city.
When there are too many interested parties present on one site, not one of them is able to start building when planned. Problems, such as re-planning the sewage system for two buildings instead of three, can occur.
Onderka advised: "The investors have to get involved with this. You have to get together and decide how you can contribute [resources] in order to make sewerage a priority in your area." His deputy, Martin Ander, tried to be more conciliatory. Apparently, the city council will be solving sewage system problems in the south of the city in the near future.
