City

Project Description

The central area of the Pankrác Plain has always been looked upon as a future major commercial centre. The City Assembly introduced this vision in a draft municipal development plan in October 1996 and this then went through a number of debates and various adjustments were then made in it before the Prague Deputies finally approved it as a Municipal Development Plan in 1999.

The prestigious multifunction centre, the CITY, is located in the middle of the Pankrác Plain in an area with a high population density and an extraordinarily well-developed infrastructure. Good transport accessibility and a direct connection to the North/South Artery and the city ring road enhances the attractiveness of the site.

The ECM development group invited the prestigious architects, Richard Meier & Partners, to draw up an architectural planning study for developing the entire Pankrác Plain with the objective being to build a multifunctional complex, whose nature and quality, as well as the layout of the individual buildings, would sensitively reflect the historic context of this part of the Czech capital and, at the same time, would contribute to the revival of this area of the city. Public authorities’ comments resulted in certain changes to Meier’s initial study: the greatest change being to modify the heights of some of the designed buildings. Today the CITY Project meets all the aesthetic, technical and social requirements for a 21st Century multifunction development project.

The CITY Project includes the following buildings: CITY TOWER, CITY POINT, CITY EMPIRIA, CITY COURT, CITY ARENA, CITY EPOQUE, CITY DECO, CITY ELEMENT and CITY FORUM, and an ensemble of shopping and social amenities known as Arkády Pankrác, which is being developed by ECE Projektmanagement International GmbH.

The CITY POINT building was approved in the summer of 2004, the final inspection of CITY EMPIRIA took place at the end of the same year and CITY TOWER building was approved in the summer of 2008. The remaining buildings at that stage were still in the preparatory stage. The Prague Municipality has already issued a development decision for the newly designed CITY COURT building. Implementation of the Pankrác Shopping Centre Company’s project known as the Arkády Pankrác shopping and social ensemble is at an advanced design stage.

As a multifunctional project, the CITY is sure to become a dominant architectural feature of Prague, drawing on the good tradition of modernist architecture of the metropolis itself and, at the same time, contributing to the shape of the city’s future. In addition, the CITY will generate a large number of job opportunities.

Location

The CITY Project is located in Pankrác, part of the Prague 4 District. Its location provides a straight and easy connection to both road and public transport systems – in addition to trams and buses, the site is located right next to the Pankrác metro station, on line C of the Prague metro system. With the planning of an additional metro line D, the two underground lines will intersect at the CITY Project site and this will further enhance the prestige of the Project.

Occupants of the buildings will enjoy the following advantages:

• direct connection to the North/South Artery (D1 motorway - Berlin – Bratislava/Vienna/Budapest)
• direct connection to the Prague ring road
• quick connection with the city centre
• direct access to metro line C, station ‘Pankrác’
• direct access to the planned new metro line D
• several bus stops just in front of the building (Lines No. 148, 188, 193, night lines 504 a 505)
• tram No. 18 near the building
• easy traffic in the area, thanks to excellent transport regulations, the widening of nearby streets and separate garages
• plenty of parking opportunities in the areas around the site