On the 31st of March this year the Józef Dietl Active Citizen Foundation organized a debate concerning the future of the area of the former Cracovia hotel.

Guests included: Elżbieta Koterba – deputy mayor of Kraków, Jan Janczykowski – provincial historical preservation officer in Lesser Poland, Krzysztof Giemza – proxy of Echo Investment and Marek Dunikowski from the Kraków-based DDJM architectural studio, who presented the new design of an office project to the participants. Krzysztof Giemza, proxy of Echo Investment, emphasized that the design of two office buildings, which replicate the main shape of the former Cracovia hotel through the size and form of one of them, complies with the current zoning plan for this part of Kraków. “The design was also consulted with the provincial historical preservation officer. We initially had slightly different views with regard to the development of this area but we reached an agreement and the elements which were considered important on the urban scale of the city were included in the zoning plan and thus they were also included in our design,” said Krzysztof Giemza. The deputy mayor Elżbieta Koterba considered the local zoning plan passed and the investor"s new design to be good. “The design fully complies with the local zoning plan and it takes into account the things which are most important in this place: the square will not be developed, the building alignment will be maintained as well as the size of the facility while valuable elements of the interior, which were pointed out by the historical preservation officer, will be kept.  I appeal to the provincial and city preservation officers as well as the city architect to arrange the conditions of preservation maintenance as quickly as possible. It is too important a place in the city,” added Elżbieta Koterba. Jan Janczykowski, provincial historical preservation office in Lesser Poland, who at the end of March started proceedings related to motions submitted by public organizations concerning an entry of the former building of the Cracovia hotel into the list of historical buildings, explained during the debate that the launch of the procedure was a condition of executing an expert evaluation. “The aim of the expert evaluation is to establish the condition of the elements of the building of the former Cracovia hotel which could be protected. I will make the experts aware that we are dealing with time pressure in this case. The issue is very important and residents of Kraków do not want the facility to become another advertising column instead they want it to decorate the urban interior,” announced Jan Janczykowski. The parties also addressed the fact the current building of the former Cracovia hotel cannot be adapted. It was emphasized that for over 4 years since its closure there were no concrete or realistic ideas concerning its development in an unchanged form. Guests also agreed that the design of Echo Investment is a solution which takes into consideration the respect for current building"s elements.