Škoda Palace, Administrative building in New Town, Prague, Czech Republic
Škoda Palace is an office building in Cubist style with seven floors above ground and two basement levels. Two interior courtyards distribute natural light throughout the structure.
The Škoda company bought the land and the late-Baroque Thun-Salm Palace on it, then had Pavel Janák design an office headquarters; his second 1924 design was built, completed around 1929. A second wing on Charvátova Street followed around 1938, including a civil defence shelter in the second basement. From 1994 to 2004 the palace housed the ČEZ energy group.
The building reflects how architects of the early Republic period believed work spaces should look and function. Glass and wood surfaces throughout the offices show this practical approach to design from that era.
The building is served by seven staircases with lifts, not fourteen elevators. Entrances from Jungmannova and Charvátova streets connect through a passage on the ground floor, where the filing room and exhibition corridor are located.
The winged-arrow gear logo by Otto Gutfreund stood on the attic gable, not at the entrance. It was taken down for repair and ended up by mistake in a scrapyard; the model and drawings survive, so it could be restored.
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