Slovenia Bulletin: No renovation yet for Ljubljana eyesore

sobota, marec 26, 2005

No renovation yet for Ljubljana eyesore

At long last, work is currently underway in Ljubljana on the façade of the Nama department store, after two of the glass panels fell to the street in the middle of last year. And a bit further up Slovenska cesta, work is about to start on another problematic building, this one at Tavčarjeva 1.

The building houses the Borova shoe store on its ground floor, which is owned by Croat investors. The Borova corporation has approved funds to renovate the building, the facade of which is already starting to crumble. Though they are prepared to put forward some 30 percent of the cost of renovating the entire building, the building’s owner refuses to begin work. Maria Ann Kostelecky Lah, a Slovene-American, owns the building, and is trying to get the City of Ljubljana to subsidize part of the renovation.

The building was returned to Lah after having been confiscated by the Socialist authorities after World War II. However, like many others who have received property back from the government, she cannot afford to conduct the much-needed renovations herself, according to Žurnal [Žurnal / 18.03.05 / Prenova starih pročelj].