The Credit Union Building (Kotěra’s design)

In 1910, the General Credit Union, having acquired the Caivas’s houses between Klicperova and today’s Úzká Streets, initiated a competition for a new building. Viktorin Šulc emerged as the winner with a conservative design. Despite the demolition of the old houses in August 1910, actual construction did not commence immediately. Šulc‘s design faced criticism for certain layout shortcomings – “narrow vestibules, limited space for the audience, insufficient rooms for café staff, [and insufficient] repose in the roof outline in the front façade.” In defense, Šulc argued that the “chosen style aligned with the city’s character.” Pavel Janák wrote to the mayor to František Ulrich, protesting the elevation of the northern frontage by Václav J. Špalek’s house and the General Credit Union palace and criticizing the Neo-Renaissance style as being out of place for a city square. A more severe critique targeted the design, citing the disproportionate mass of the designed structure.
 

In 1910, Ješek Hofman, a prominent member of the Old Prague Club, published a strong condemnation in the club’s bulletin, For Old Prague, edited by Zdeněk Wirth. Hofman expressed concern about the disruption of the horizontal level of the historic square, particularly noting the impact of previous structures like the neo-Baroque U Beránka house and two neo-Renaissance houses designed by Václav Rejchl Sr. and Robert Schmidt. “The most recently burnt down Špalek’s house and the next block of two Caivas’s houses are to be replaced by houses with even four storeys,’ fumed Hofman. “The northern side of the square will lose its uniformity of height and the ratio between the width of the square and its walls will be lost – the city square will cease to exist,” he added. By the end of 1910, a new investor acquired the plot and announced a shortlisted competition, inviting architects Osvald Polívka, Oldřich Liska, and Josef Novotný to participate (likely based on their positive experience with modifying Šulc’s initial project). Kotěra later expressed interest in participating in the competition, organized by the mayor František Ulrich.
 

Kotěra found himself somewhat constrained by his alignment with the views of the Old Prague Club and the preceding controversy. The Club explicitly insisted that the new Credit Union building should be connected to the arcade, a demand Kotěra endeavored to fulfill by incorporating an extended portico carrying a bay window with a meeting room on the first floor. The design was notably scaled down compared to the competition. Kotěra devised a solution that allocated space for shops and the bank in the bustling square, while the quieter Tomkova Street section accommodated two larger apartments on the first floor and three smaller apartments on the second floor. The two parts were strictly separated, with no provision for connecting the service apartments with the premises of the banking institute. A skylight ran through the middle of the building, allowing daylight to filter into the credit institute hall on the first floor. The basement housed a wine bar and storage rooms. On the ground floor, the square-facing section hosted the archives, exchange office, and a safe under the hall. The remaining ground floor space was occupied by seven shops and a deli. An alternative design considered a smaller archive and vault, with an additional shop. The first floor featured cash offices along the hall, the director’s office in the front wing facing the square, and a projecting bay with a meeting room above the arcade. On the second floor, there were smaller offices.
 

Kotěra endeavored to create a modern yet monumentally sensitive solution. The building’s façade reflected an attempt to design a distinctive, representative structure referencing the setting of a public institution while harmonizing with the adjacent historic buildings. Kotěra seemed to realize that a simple modernist approach might not suffice for certain environments and heritage-focused projects. Instead, he employed forms and compositional procedures that sought harmony with the historical context. Surviving preparatory drawings for the Credit Union competition reveal Kotěra’s detailed analyses of all the square’s facades before he embarked on the design. This method aligned with the monumental analysis advocated by Zdeněk Wirth, a figure acquainted with Kotěra and likely a friend due to their collaboration in founding Styl magazine.
 

Ultimately, Osvald Polívka’s more conservative but notably monumental solution gained preference over Kotěra’s project, which, according to Marcel Pencák, was “both empathetically composed and inventive.” On 24 April 1911, the city council approved the design of the three-storey building. However, subsequent modifications, including the addition of a mezzanine and a corner bay above the attic cornice, led to its surpassing the controversial Špalek department store next door in terms of height.  

 

LZL