Building development and urban planning after 1989

   
The post-November changes also significantly affected building development in Jihlava. The prefabricated construction completed the houses that had already been started but did not continue any further. Stavoprojekt Jihlava persisted despite staff losses until 1993, when it suddenly and definitely collapsed. Its former members founded independent or joint architectural studios, the most prominent of which were the Penta studio centred around the architect Jaromír Homolka, Fortis headed by Jaroslav Huňáček, and the Association of Design Studios (Sdružení projektových ateliérů, S.P.A.) with Pavel and Jana Fousek. In the 1990s, contracts for administrative and commercial buildings dominated, while residential buildings were relegated to the background. The price of land rose considerably, especially in the city centre. The street gap sites were therefore quickly filled with new buildings for commercial and administrative purposes, often in the popular postmodern style. The architectural level of these new buildings varies considerably, as shown by the example of Havlíčkova Street, much of which was demolished during the 1960s and 1970s. However, there is also a relatively successful post-modern housing block with a shop (Billa – now closed) in the southern part of the street, which has managed to relatively unite the disrupted urban character. A cultivated example of the architecture of the "nineties"in the spirit of postmodernism is the construction of the gatehouse and Surgical Pavilion with A&E on the grounds of the Jihlava Hospital by Jaromír Homolka. It was later followed by other hospital buildings by the Penta project team.

In 2000, Jihlava became the seat of the Vysočina Region, which necessitated the construction of executive offices. On the site of the former Žižkovy barracks, a large three-section building was newly constructed as the Regional Office, for which Jaroslav Huňáček of Fortis s.r.o. received the 2003 Building of the Year Award. In the former hospital area on Legionářů Street, a demanding remodelling of the Surgical Pavilion designed by Karel Roštík in the late 1920s was carried out from 2004–2005 to house the Regional Court. Further renovations followed, such as the successful restoration of the Dukla cinema in 2008, where two smaller cinema screens, a café in the front part, and archive rooms on the additional floor were arranged in the building without having a negative impact on the appearance from the outside. The FC Vysočina Football Stadium, built between 2005 and 2009 according to the design by the Brno architect František Šmédek, continues the tradition of higher architectural quality for Jihlava's sports buildings. The City Park shopping and entertainment centre, designed by Ladislav Kuba and Tomáš Pilař, both from Brno, was constructed on Hradební Street. Despite its obvious architectural quality, the building still arouses controversy in relation to the neighbouring historic city centre. Nearby, behind the Znojemský Bridge, the successful adaptation of the Palmovka industrial complex can be found, designed by architects from the Liberec studio Mjölk, which deservedly earned the 2017 Czech Architecture Award. The Jihlava studio Artprojekt, headed by the architect Petr Holub, came up with the design for the remodelling of the industrial brownfield of the former Alfatex under the Brněnský Bridge for residential purposes. The post-revolutionary expansion of Jihlava Zoo also deserves attention, and not only for the picturesque buildings designed by Jaroslav Huňáček from Fortis, with the organically shaped Reptile Pavilion at the forefront. An important future construction project is the Horácké Multipurpose Arena designed by the architects Chybík and Krištof, which should replace the existing ice arena with the hall from the 1960s and connect Tolstého Street with the HolySpirit Park (sv. Ducha) as well as create an iconic Jihlava building for the 21st century with its silhouette and façade concept.

After November 1989, repairs in the neglected historic city centre were also rightly underway. The dilapidated, but mostly still authentic houses found themselves in the hands of private owners through property restitution and privatisation. Initially, they were repaired in a hasty and thoughtless way. Fortunately, more uniform approaches and repairs of previously neglected buildings from the 19th and the first half of the 20th century were soon adopted. The remodelling of abandoned buildings for completely new purposes has become a hot topic in the new democracy. The former Dominican Convent on Křížová Street was sensitively remodelled into the Gustav Mahler Hotel after the property was returned to the Strahov Premonstratensians between 1990 and 1993. The Nazi architecture of the "Hrádek" in Heulos was rebuilt by the architect Petr Holub into a police boarding school in 1995. The most hotly contested reconstruction from the first half of the 1990s, but probably also the most valuable manifestation of postmodernism in Jihlava, was certainly the reconstruction, or rather the new Horácké Theatre on Komenského Street, designed by the Prague architects Jan Vančura, Miroslav Melena, Tomáš Brix, Vladimír Krátký, and Václav Králíček after they had won the tender. Between 2004 and 2006, the Jihlava City Hall buildings were also repaired again. This costly renovation was entrusted to the Jihlava architect Jaroslav Huňáček, whose main goal was to adapt the city hall to the current needs of its operation while preserving its historical heritage to the maximum extent. The area next to the city walls on Věžní Street was rebuilt significantly – a commemoration site with Gustav Mahler Park was created on the marketplace site, according to the project by the Jihlava architect Martin Laštovička. The same designer was also behind the latest restoration of the Church of St. Cross (Kostel sv. Kříže) from 2010. The trail through the historic centre also offers other successful renovations.

It was not until the second half of the 1990s that the demand for new housing began to rise. Many people were tired of socialist mass housing and understandably longed for individual houses of a higher standard. The periphery of Jihlava thus began to slowly expand as a result of the emergence of developments and, later, better regulated new housing estates with apartment blocks. These were mainly the areas of Horní Kosov, Staré Hory, the northern edge of Bedřichov, the area around Polenská Road up to Hruškové Dvory and the buildings towards Rančířov and Rantířov, and on the eastern edge of the town towards Helenín. High-quality complexes of houses can also be found, such as the group of terraced houses on the eastern side of Na Dolech Street by the Jihlava studio Q. Design (2004), as well as successful solitaires, which are best represented by Ve vilách, a house designed by the Prague Studio A of the architect Jan Aulík (1998–1999), and the house on Dlouhá Street in Horní Kosov, designed by Luděk Rýzner from OK Plan Architects in Humpolec. The most outstanding apartment block is the complex on Zátopkova Street also designed by Jan Aulík.

The long-planned concept of the outer ring road was completed in 2008. The growing area of Horní Kosov was given the necessary connection to the bypass and a direct route to the city centre via Vrchlického Street. The bypass then enters a tunnel, followed by an exit onto the road to Pelhřimov. The ring road between the town border and Pístov continues to the southern road to Znojmo.

JL

Objects on the trail