The new Radio Free Europe building...

I made a visit to the new building today, after about two months since I was last there. There is much progress but also much work to be done. Our technical guys will get in soon to start


Here is the building juxtaposed against the artist's concept on a billboard.

This is the view from inside the building looking up to the top of the atrium. Of course, it will look a little better when all of the scaffolding is gone.

You have to use your imagination to visualize it, but this is my future office. This is where the future magic will happen.

What will happen to the current Radio Free Europe building?...

The National Museum at the top of Wenceslas Square, with the Radio Free Europe building just visible on the left.






Well, my advice would be to knock it down and build a 5-star hotel on the site. The location, at the top of Wenceslas Square right next to the National Museum, makes it one of the most attractive in the city for tourists.

That's not the Czech government's plan, though. According to today's Prague Monitor the National Museum will take it over and


National Museum revamp seen completed by 2018
By ČTK / Published 28 February 2008
Prague, Feb 27 (CTK) - The historical building of the National Museum (NM) in Prague and its new premises in the nearby building of the former federal parliament [ed. That's us] should be fully functional in 2018 when the museum will mark the 200th anniversary of establishment, NM director Michal Lukes has told CTK.

The historical neo-Renaissance building of the National Museum in the upper part of Wenceslas Square in Prague's centre was built in 1885-90 and it has never been completely reconstructed since.

The national heritage building and the reconstructed federal parliament building from the early 1970s will be connected by an underground tunnel. The new premises will extend the museum's exhibition space by several thousand square metres.

The former federal parliament building now houses Radio Free Europe (RFE) that is to leave it by March 31, 2009 at the latest when its new seat further away from the centre is to be completed.

The decision to move RFE from the centre was made after the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001 for security reasons.

"We would be glad if it were possible to make the (museum) complex accessible right from the metro (underground)," Lukes said.

Together with the NM reconstruction the whole Wenceslas Square is to be revitalised and the city arterial road passing by the museum is to be relocated.

Lukes said the museum also prepares a reconstruction of its depository in Terezin, north Bohemia, where all stock and libraries from the historical NM building are to be moved in 2010.

The reconstruction is to cost 4.5 billion crowns. [ed. $272million]


I'm not sure about the tunnel idea, considering that probably the most used metro station in the city (linking the green and red lines) sits underground between the National Museum and our building. And if today they are saying it will be done by 2018, my money is on completion by 2025 (if ever). I hope I'm still around to witness the grand opening.

New building...

I made a visit to the new RFE/RL building last week. I have visited many times before, but is the first time I have been able to go inside the building. Much progress is being made and there is still cautious optimism about a completion this summer as planned.

The number of workers both inside and outside of the building is amazing. It looks like organized chaos (at least I hope it's organized).


Here is the view from just inside the gate. Windows and exterior fascade are going on.

Here is a slightly closer view. The open area on the top floor will be a terrace (it will be used for eating outside in warm weather and all year around by the smokers).

Here is the view from my future office window.

The new Radio Free Europe building...

The building is still coming along nicely - and is still on schedule. There was a topping off ceremony two weeks ago, so the building is as high as it's going to get. At the construction site there was food, refreshments, a band and speeches.

We should be able to get into the building in March to install the network equipment. In June we should be able to install some studios and then in early August we should be able to start moving broadcasters. In the best case scenario everyone will be moved by the end of December. More likely, though, is everyone moved by the end of February 2009.

Time is going by very fast and my work on buying things needed in the new building is heating up. The network equipment I mentioned was ordered last week - at a cost of over $2M. New studio equipment will be ordered soon - for more than $1M. Studio furniture, racks for the computer equipment, an in-house monitoring system ,etc., etc. It's getting busy, but this is the fun part.

The new RFE/RL building...

I have added a picture on the left that shows our new office building being constructed. I will try to update each week to show the progress. I hope it gets completed on time.

Our new Radio Free Europe building...

The groundbreaking for our new office buiding was last October 13th, but real construction did not begin until this spring. Here is where things are at so far. They are on the second of what will be five floors. They say that they will be topped out and enclosed in November, so that the serious work on the interior can start right about the time the cold weather hits. I hope they are right. The schedule calls for us to get in for some preliminary work next May and to take possession in August. I will update every once in a while.















Here is what it will look like when it is finished.

Meeting the chairman...

There are VIPs in Prague this week. The June meeting of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is being held here. The BBG overseas RFE/RL and the other "entities" such as Voice of America (VOA), Alhurra, Radio Sawa, Radio Farda, Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Radio and TV Martí. The BBG has a new chairman, Jim Glassman (at right), who was just confirmed last Friday and is replacing the outgoing controversial chairman Ken Tomlinson. I talked to Glassman for a few minutes after a meeting today at the Don Giovanni hotel, next to the site of our new new building. He is very bright, but comes across as a normal guy who you could discuss sports or politics with over a beer. Here is part of his bio from the web site leadingauthorities.com.


James K. Glassman is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington public policy think tank, where he specializes in issues involving economics and financial markets. In addition, he is host and co-founder of TechCentralStation.com, a website started in February 2000 that concentrates on matters of technology and public policy. He is also chairman of Investors Action, a new organization that aims to help educate and represent America's 100 million investors.

In November 2004, Mr. Glassman started writing a monthly column on investing for Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. He also writes a weekly op-ed column on political and economic issues for the Scripps Howard News Service.

Between July 1993 and July 2004, he wrote a syndicated weekly column on investing for The Washington Post, which also appeared in the International Herald Tribune and other publications. He has also been investing columnist for Reader's Digest.

Mr. Glassman's most recent book, The Secret Code of the Superior Investor (Crown) named one of the top 10 investing books of 2002 by Barrons.

From 1987 to 1993, he was editor and part-owner of Roll Call, the twice-weekly newspaper that covers Congress. Prior to that, he had a long career in magazine publishing -- as president of the Atlantic Monthly, executive vice president of U.S.News & World Report and publisher of the New Republic. In 1972, he started Figaro, a New Orleans weekly newspaper, selling it in 1979. He was executive editor of the Washingtonian magazine from 1979 to 1981. He has also had extensive television experience, as host of Capital Gang Sunday on CNN and TechnoPolitics on PBS. He has appeared as a guest on the CNN's Larry King Show, ABC's Nightline, PBS's Charlie Rose Show and many others. His articles have been published in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Reader's Digest, and other publications.

However he is not without controversy. In the late 1990s he predicted the Dow would soar to 36,000 when it was only about 10,000 at the time. From Wikipedia:

Glassman is known for his market analyses and commentary on economics and equities investing. He is a long-term optimist and is quick to point out positive developments, which is clearly typified in his book Dow 36,000. In this book, published near the peak of the late 1990s stock market bubble, Glassman infamously declared that the Dow Jones Industrial Average was undervalued and would rise to 36,000. This prediction proved to be drastically off the mark.[1] In its introduction, Glassman and his co-author wrote that the book "will convince you of the single most important fact about stocks at the dawn of the twenty-first century: They are cheap....If you are worried about missing the market's big move upward, you will discover that it is not too late. Stocks are now in the midst of a one-time-only rise to much higher ground–to the neighborhood of 36,000 on the Dow Jones industrial average."[2]

A swanky party...

Last week Kathy and I were invited to a big party at a local hotel - the Don Giovanni. This hotel is half a block from where our new building is being constructed, so I have already been talking to their management about working some long term arrangement for our visitors to stay there after we move. The Don Giovanni is basically a higher end tourist hotel, but it was just acquired by Dorint and will be making some changes to attract more business clients (and their higher profit margin). That timing of that will work out for us just fine. The party was to christen the new Dorint change.

It was very upscale, with free food and drinks and many door prizes (alas, we didn't win one). Before the free food they had a fashion show, which had 1930 as a theme. The host told us that in 1930 the Czech Republic was in a very prosperous and productive period and they wanted to say that it was heading in that direction again. It seemed odd celebrating the prosperous year that was 1930 since our great depression started in late 1929. I had thought the whole world had followed the US instantly into depression, but perhaps there was a lag. Anyway, it was a great time and here are a couple of photos.




This looks like it could be one of those "host a murder parties".