• Hidden Secret Police lookout in a bell tower

  As promised, the StB observation post atop St. Nicholas Church in Mala Strana has opened as a museum, Prague Radio reports. It's a breathtaking climb for a breathtaking view and some insights into the lives of secret police agents monitoring the American, German, and Italian embassies from this completely hidden location.

• 90th Anniversary Celebration of Works in Glass

  This year's special summer Museum of Decorative Arts exhibition, June 17 to September 19, features the Glass School in Železný Brod celebrating its 90th anniversary. Whether you have already developed a passion for Czech art in glass or need an introduction, this comprehensive exhibit is a must-see.

• Architecture at the DOX

Two exhibitions about urban architecture run concurrently at the Dox through August 2.

• Jan Kaplický: His Own Way, until August 2, 2010

  This retrospective lovingly displays models and huge photos of the late Czech-born architect Jan Kaplický's extensive projects, along with personal photos from his life. It is not made clear which works were built and which remained in the design stage.

  Some projects, like the gigantic "Green Bird," a skyscraper resembling a sex toy, provoke one to wonder how much he cared about the inhabitants who had to live and work with such sculptures masquerading as buildings. For decades, many contemporary architects have ignored such concerns and those who protested have been ridiculed. Certainly, Kaplický's design for the Prague National Library, displayed here in it's original green-and-purple octopus version and its revised gold-skinned version, roused such passionate and diametrically opposed feelings.

  This is one of the most glittering, colorful, and professionally-staged exhibits to be hosted by the DOX. It was curated by his long-time friend Eva Jiřičná who speaks about the exhibit with Radio Praha.

• City Interventions in Prague 2010, until August 2, 2010

  In stark contrast, the second architectural exhibit is hidden away in a crude unfinished space nearly impossible to find without asking directions. It consists entirely of posters hanging on lines zigzaging across the bare crumbling space. Only two have English translations of their titles and ideas. Nevertheless, to those who care about improving our urban environment, this is an exciting exhibit.

  This civic initiative highlights a concept long overdue for discussion: ". . .the finding that most city inhabitants are convinced that architects . . . do not actively deal with the urban space that influences our everyday movement and life in a city, that the architect (if he or she manages to find a willing investor) only tries to build a personal memorial regardless of its impact on the environment." The first City Interventions project took place in Bratislava, were wildly popular, and had some success in influencing what was built there.

  The focus is on improving unfriendly and ugly environments around existing structures, places that could become quite inviting and even beautiful. Many of the posters feature Before and After photos. The viewer who already knows a great deal of Prague will recognize these places. A map in the free brochure is also helpful with locating project sites.

  Ideas are both large scale and small. A intense longing for greenery and people-friendly places to walk or sit is evident. Many of the large scale projects involve adding a "garden rooftop" over roadways or atop old brick viaducts, as in Paris' Promenade Plantee. One project, pictured on the DOX web site, would add a lawn and garden in the cold concrete courtyard next to the National Theatre. Another would add an outdoor cafe with a stunning view to the terrace in front of the reconstructed Brussels Pavillion in Letna Park. A third would vastly improve the friendliness and useability of the space in front of the Veletržní Palac's National Gallery. Smaller projects suggest adding benches, trees, and plants to tiny pockets of space.

Plans for pedestrian bridges, bike paths, and recreation include some appealing ideas. The most elegant is a proposed set of graceful pedestrian bridges connecting the islands and banks of the Vltava, with lights creating luminous strands of pearls at night. A water slide and wave-making machine on a small existing side weir of the river looks exciting and easy to do. Another small simple idea is to add "high heel lanes," flat smooth strips, to cobbled areas of the city.

A few ideas are rather kitsch. A floating flower market does not need to resemble a swan. Some are intentionally so: A miniature knockoff of Kaplický's octopus is colored a violent fuchsia and located, covering a children's sandbox, in front of Prague's Town Hall. A few firms still adhere to the architecture-as-space-age-sculpture philosophy, and several posters are psychedelic and incomprehensible, as if the participants did not receive the directions for the contest.

Note that nearly all the ideas are "people-friendly" and emphasize the human scale and dimension needed in a city. The architecture of Prague's historical center reminds us of eras where this was the norm. Civic initiatives like this aim to revive such values.

• Additional information about "urban interventions":

  Radio Praha discussed the exhibit briefly with Adam Gebrian, the curatior.

  Beware: Not everyone means the same thing by "urban intervention." Wikipedia describes the avant garde "in-your-face" movements more interested in making street art statements than in providing restful, pleasing environments. Some categorize these movements as the next step beyond graffiti.

  A widely-used book, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, published in 1977, analyzes the reasons why some architecture, from individual buildings and their sites to entire towns, is more attractive and more utilized than others. Why do we find medieval towns so pleasing? Why do owners of suburban homes on one side of a street use their backyards regularly while those on the opposite side do not? It makes one acutely aware of how size and spacing as well as such factors as sun, wind, and shadow influence our semi-conscious perception of a place.