Havlíčkův Brod begins demolishing first panelák on aesthetic grounds

The town of Havlíčkův Brod has begun the first demolition of a panelák, or prefab residential building, for purely urbanistic reasons. The 18-apartment building will be removed from a central town square at a cost of 2.8 million crowns. The town council had been debating whether to remove the unpopular, 1982 structure for several years, because it obstructs passage into a historic alleyway that joins two squares. The communist-built panelák buildings are often deplored as ugly and shoddy, but nonetheless provide the country with more than 1.25 million residential spaces. Only about one third have been reconstructed to meet more modern standards.