The Skloexport building in Liberec, on the corner of Žitavská and 1. máje streets near the railway station, was built between 1927 and 1930 to a design by the Prague architect František Vahala. It has two underground and five above-ground floors, and its wings enclose a square courtyard covered by a glass roof. A paternoster has survived in it.[2]
History
The building originally had no connection to glassmaking and mainly served state offices. The ground floor housed a post office, a customs office, warehouses and shops, and the third floor was used by the district captaincy. During the war it housed German financial offices, and from 1949 the Regional National Committee. After the committee was abolished in 1960, the building was taken over by the enterprise Skloexport, after which it is still called today. Skloexport went bankrupt at the end of the 1990s, the building has belonged to the state since 2001, and the last tenants left in 2009.[2]
The region’s plans
Liberec Region is to acquire the building from the state in exchange for the new integrated emergency services centre in Turnov, which cost almost 265 million crowns. According to Governor Martin Půta (Starostové pro Liberecký kraj), the region is to obtain the properties without conditions restricting their use. The region plans to use the building for itself and its organisations, possibly for officials of the city or the state. The ground floor is expected to have space for promoting and selling glass and jewellery products from Křišťálové Údolí and other regional products. A major reconstruction is estimated to cost more than half a billion crowns.[1][2]