In accordance with redevelopment plans for the so-called Lower Suburb where the housing estate in Komenského Square (02-1048) was to be built, part of the east side of Havlíčkova Street was demolished in the 1970s. The houses that were to have been built on terraces there never materialized.
Shortly after the so-called Velvet Revolution, the town council decided to enhance this shabby, yet publicly accessible place close to the historical centre. In 1992, a competition was announced for the design of a development plan for the area. The Brno design studio of Aleš Burián and Gustav Křivinka won the competition with a compact design comprising four-storey town houses with ground-floor shop premises and featuring top floors set back from the others in attic-like form. Each building was to have had an L-shaped floor plan with its longer arm marking off a semi-private courtyard at the back – a typical feature for Litomyšl.
Building No. 1118, the administrative building of the První litomyšlské stavební building company, was designed as the first, corner building, of the planned street frontage. The design was also undertaken by the architects Burian and Křivinka who kept to the designated development plan of the area. The glazed ground-floor section, which was allocated for banking purposes from the outset, featured a roof-like perimeter cornice. The regular matrix of the windows on the first and second floors, also serving administrative purposes, was enlivened with the help of a strip of corner windows. The fourth – set back – floor, featuring wooden shielding walls, is designated for housing.
As the designers themselves maintain, the intention was to create “a cultural, civilian building”, with fittingly chosen materials “with the accent on traditional, natural materials and sophisticated detail”.
