According to the daily, opponents of the new National Library project exert pressure on Pecina in an effort to thwart it, but Pecina does not want to give in. "Everyone wants me to ban it.
I don't feel like doing so," he told the paper. He said everyone is waiting for him to decide, but he conducts no proceedings. "We can continue waiting until Christmas," he said. At the request of the National Library Team, which is to decide on the Kaplicky project's fate, the UOHS is supposed to assess the documentation of the international architectonic competition, also from the point of view of international law. Hospodarske noviny recalls Czech press survey ...
Czech antitrust office deals with National Library contest again ...
Czech police shelve case of CEZ power utility option programme ... that already two months ago Pecina said it was not up to the UOHS to decide on the library project and that he saw no reason why Kaplicky project's victory in the competition should not be recognised. However, this position of Pecina met with resistance on the part of state officials. "Deputy culture minister [Frantisek Mikes] told me that in his view we did not decide correctly," Pecina says. Mikes, nevertheless, insists that had exerted no pressure on Pecina. "I only wrote a letter to him asking whether public money can be spent on something that has not emerged from a standard public competition," Hospodarske noviny quotes Mikes as saying. He probably alluded to doubts surrounding the victory of the studio of Kaplicky, a renowned Czech-born British architect, in the competition. Some say Kaplicky had not complied with all conditions of the competition. The international federation of architects has upheld the jury's verdict repeatedly, nevertheless. The Czechs are split in their opinion on the library's organic-shaped design and its location near historical Prague Castle. The project's opponents include President Vaclav Klaus. A few weeks ago Kaplicky, 70, said he might cease promoting the project if the final decision on it were postponed permanently.
(Ceske Noviny)
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