Bém meets with Knížák regarding the reconstruction of the Congress Centre into the National Gallery

Prague - Prague Mayor Pavel Bém has not ruled out the possibility of rebuilding the Congress Center for the needs of the National Library (NL) instead of constructing a new building. Next week, he will meet with the author of this idea, the director of the National Gallery, Milan Knížák. He stated this today in the Sunday Partie program on Prima television.
    "This is a thought worth considering," Bém said about Knížák's idea. According to Knížák, the reconstruction would kill two birds with one stone - it would simultaneously resolve the use of the former communist Palace of Culture and Relaxation. "It would be a good, functional, and inexpensive solution. It would not only solve the library's problem but also the problem of Prague's skyline," Knížák believes.
    The director of the National Gallery considers the Congress Center building to be repulsive. He would not see any problem in demolishing the outer shell of the building and also utilizing the underground spaces. He did not rule out that the Palace could partially continue to serve for conference meetings. He estimated the costs for the reconstruction at one to three billion crowns. The costs for the construction of a new NL building according to Jan Kaplický's design were estimated at approximately two billion crowns.
    However, Bém has not completely abandoned the possibility of building a new NL building according to Kaplický's design; however, he does not want it to be located in Letná. "I am convinced that Jan Kaplický's design is interesting, but it is not suitable for Letná," stated the mayor and deputy chairman of the ODS, Bém. Deputy chairman of the ČSSD, Milan Urban, would also not like Kaplický's octopus in Letná.
    Bém also reiterated that the proposal to consider the possibility of the construction being located on city land near Vyšehrad is a "grandiose mystification". According to Saturday's Lidové noviny, Deputy Mayor Pavel Klega promised the city's support for this solution. Bém stated today that he spoke with his deputy, who denied that he had said anything like that.
    The dispute over the new library building has been ongoing for several months. According to the NL, the Ministry of Culture and the Prague City Hall are to decide, but the City Hall believes that the antimonopoly office should first decide whether the competition for the library was in accordance with Czech laws and whether public funds can be used for the library's project documentation. The head of the office, Martin Pecina, argues that his office is not authorized to assess the architectural competition held according to the rules of the International Union of Architects.