At the turn of the 20th century, Pardubice’s premier hotel and entertainment venue was the Veselka Hotel. In 1912, the municipal authorities began planning the construction of a new multifunctional building. Local citizens organized the first major architectural competition, but ultimately the hotel was not built. It was not until 1927, when the city joined forces with the architect Josef Gočár (1880–1945), a native of East Bohemia, that a design was produced. Construction work began in 1928, but financial problems delayed its completion until 1931.
Josef Gočár produced a timeless design incorporating sober elements of inter-war Functionalism. However, when the hotel was complete, the blue-grey opaxit glass exterior tiles proved problematic. They kept falling off the façade, causing a local humorous magazine to joke that “the authorities prohibit the tiles from falling off the walls”. The hotel’s box-like modern appearance was criticized by local journalists, who nicknamed it “the cooker”.
