City Tower is the tallest skyscraper in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
(
Pankrác district) and in
Bohemia, and the second
tallest one in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
standing on the
Pankrác Plain with a height of 109 meters.
[Topographic map of Czech Armed Forces](_blank)
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History
Construction commenced in 1985 and the building was designated as the headquarters of Československý rozhlas (now Český rozhlas; a Czech public radio broadcaster). In 1993, the building was nearly completed, but appeared to be oversized for Český rozhlas (which split from Československý rozhlas after the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia), technically obsolete and full of dangerous asbestos.
In later years Český rozhlas tried to sell the uncompleted building. In 1996, an agreement was signed with the company NIKO to sell the building for 1 billion CZK
The koruna, or crown, ( sign: Kč; code: CZK, cs, koruna česká) has been the currency of the Czech Republic since 1993. The koruna is one of the European Union's 9 currencies, and the Czech Republic is legally bound to adopt the euro curre ...
, but subsequently failed to pay the agreed amount. A similar scenario happened one year later with the Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
an company Wells Holding and an agreed selling price of 550 million CZK. Finally the building was sold in 1999 to the company ECM for just 285 million CZK.
After a long planning process and legislative planning steps the radical reconstruction of the building, designed by Richard Meier, began in 2005 and was completed in 2008. On 20 December 2007 the building obtained final building approval. The first tenants started to move into the building at the beginning of 2008. The largest renter is Raiffeisenbank, a.s. which occupies 10 floors of the building with about 1200 employees.
Over 2300 tons of new steel structures were used for its reconstruction. The facade consists of 30,500 m2 of glass sheets. 800 parking spaces were built in the underground floors. There are 18 lifts in the building. Elevators reach speeds of up to 6 meters per second and the official web page claims they are the fastest lifts in the Czech Republic. On the 27th floor is the highest restaurant in the Czech Republic, it has been since 2013 repeatedly awarded Michelin's Bib Gourmand award.
In 2009 ECM sold City Tower for €130 millions to Czech company Marpona a.s. Transaction was backed up by J&T.E15: Největší realitní obchod loňska šel přes J&T
In 2012, the building was sold again, to company Consideratio which belongs under holding Proxy-Finance. The price was not published.
Gallery
File:Praha Pankrac.jpg, Prague skyscrapers, City Tower on right (year 2005, before reconstruction)
File:Praha, Pankrác, mrakodrapy.jpg, City Tower in centre (year 2006, during reconstruction)
File:Arkády Pankrác a City Tower.jpg, City Tower and shopping mall Arkády Pankrác
File:Mrakodrapy v Praze 2018.jpg, Prague skyscrapers panorama in 2018
See also
*
List of tallest buildings in Prague
*
List of tallest buildings in the Czech Republic
This lists ranks the tallest buildings in the Czech Republic that stand at least tall. For non-building structures, see List of tallest structures in the Czech Republic
This is a list of the tallest Nonbuilding structure, structures in th ...
References
External links
* (in English)
City Tower on ECM websiteArticle about building history
{{Portal bar, Czech Republic, Architecture
Richard Meier buildings
Skyscraper office buildings in the Czech Republic
Office buildings completed in 2008
Skyscrapers in Prague
Retail buildings in the Czech Republic
2008 establishments in the Czech Republic
21st-century architecture in the Czech Republic