Central Building Electric Company today Bubenská 1

The pearl of Czech functionalism, it is currently being rebuilt.

The building of the Electric Companies of the Capital The City of Prague (later also known as the Transport Companies Building), which is protected as a cultural monument, was built between 1927 and 1935 according to a design by Adolf Benš and Josef Kříž on the grounds of the former Böhm brothers' hat factory. The construction of the new building created 33,000 m2 of office space. It was inaugurated on March 7, 1935, and was opened to the public on April 30 of that year. The budget for the construction of the building was a staggering 52 million crowns at that time. Building of the Electricity Enterprise of Prague (later also known as the Transport Company Building), which is protected as a cultural monument, was built between 1927 and 1935 according to the design of Adolf Beneš and Josef Kříž on the grounds of the former hat factory of the Böhm brothers. The construction of a new building resulted in 33,000 m2 of office space. It was officially opened on March 7, 1935, and was open to the public on April 30 of the same year. The budget for the construction of the building was at that time amazing 52 million crowns.

The building from 1935 was created on the incentive of the Electric Companies of the Capital City of Prague. Prague, which thus concentrated its officials in one place. At that time it was the largest office building in Prague and an impressive demonstration of functionalism that still amazes. Especially heating and air-conditioning or insulated basement or facade of frost-resistant ceramic tiles. The building is listed. Today it is used as an office and retail space, and also houses the Polyclinic Vltavská.

Since 2021, the functionalist building at Bubenská 1 can accommodate up to 1,500 workers. The design and visual representation of the future building looks great, identical to the original building and I can confirm that I have lived with it for 40 years. The authors of the original building, built on the site of the former millinery from 1927 to 1935, are the architects Adolf Benš and Josef Kříž. As part of the complex reconstruction, a visually accurate replica of the original ceramic plates should be made and two unique paternoster lifts will be preserved. BDG Architecture + Design from the WPP Group will collaborate with the CPI Group architects to redesign their interior office space, incorporating many of the existing features. The restoration will also revitalize the surroundings of the building. The world's largest communications group, WPP, will unify the location of its agencies in the Czech Republic. A total of 12 Group Agencies will be located at Bubenská 1 in Prague, near the Vltavská metro station. The functionalist building at Hlávkův Bridge, which until recently housed the footwear retailer Footshop or Forbidden Spot of Life is Porno, will undergo extensive reconstruction for more than a billion crowns. It should start operating in 2021 and will be ready to hire up to 1,500 WPP staff. Currently the group has around 1,200 in the Czech Republic. The former building of Electric Companies of the Capital City of Prague belongs to the CPI Property Group of billionaire Radovan Vítek, domestic WPP agencies will be there for a long-term lease, the lease has been concluded since 2020 for 18 years. They will become the main tenant, occupying almost two thirds of the building, over 16,300 square meters of the total of 25,500. In particular, Ogilvy, Young & Rubicam, Wunderman, JWT, Geometry, Kantar TNS, Kantar Millward Brown and GroupM, Mindshare, Mediacom, Wavemaker and H1.cz should move to the new headquarters. The group will leave their traditional headquarters in Prague 5 in Nádražní or Rozkošného Street (Young & Rubicam, Wunderman, JWT, GroupM, Mediacom, Mindshare, Wavemaker, H1.cz) and Prague 7 in Přívozní (Ogilvy, Geometry). Kantar Millward Brown immigrates from Prague 1, Kantar TNS from Prague 9. On the other hand, the Brno branch of Ogilvy logically remains in the Moravian metropolis.