However, the twentieth century that changed many architectural traditions, changed inevitably the function of a tower. It gave it a purpose. It placed people into it. It accommodated people. The tower stopped being an important and unique dominant element, but mostly it became a symbol of luck of free parcels in the city. The economical benefits of high buildings are slightly debatable however the view and the tower shine through and symbolically emphasize the meaning of its owner and user. Tall buildings became fashionable closer to the skies than the grass.

However, in our conditions, it ended up with towers just like with many other architectural goals poorly. Towers were made without a base, without a head, buildings which copied on another without an idea, without uniqueness. The dominant element of the city became more of a warning finger than a decoration.

The same applies to the tower of a gas company in Ostrava. Slightly said the volume of the tragically erected tower which on its own was doubtful, especially when they managed to make it very strangely thin. The vertical infrastructures were taking space for the tower’s life. It could have been somehow an appropriate tower for the socialistic company. However, it could hardly function under the current circumstances with the aggressively dynamic company. The tower met its expiration date, but what now?

Tear it down- that’s a simple solution but pretty expensive. The Ostrava’s administration tower had one advantage- it was traditionally unfinished business. It was a good construction, it wasn’t well-thought-through architecture. The new company’s confidence, however, knew that a good architect could function just like a strong company trademark. That’s why they decided to complete it.

The change beautified the tower. The tower bloomed. It became a tower in the right sense. Not only a tall building but a tower that captures, that symbolizes. A tower that attracts and thrills. That could be looked at, that could be looked out of-at it and from it.

First, it lost a couple of the top floors. Not because the tower would be bent, but because it was given a new crown. Softly shaped, dynamic, completely different from what it was even from what was left from it- almost nothing is straight here, right-angled, the building is bending in its core and in its dissection, it has a strength and tension almost passionately opening above the city. The wide crown overlaps the edge of the building and part of its energy is left to flow through the narrow wall down. A glass tube is getting smaller on the way to the ground and underlines the entire new feel. This is a true higher and further.

It is obvious that this kind of tower could not be surrounded by a rather boring area. The original tower did not have a hill nor a pedestal. It got it. It is placed next to it, but it does no longer grow out of nothing, out of the grass, it has its clear base. It foreshadows not only the tower itself but also the look, character, and generosity of the future area.

Beautiful tower. Gifted example for the next ones that are still waiting for the architectural awakening.

Author of the text: doc. Ing. arch. Radomíra Sedláková, CSc.