Post photo: Wollhaus | © Heinrich Kümmerle
After the BUGA and the admirable developments in the well-being area, many people from Heilbronn thought that the future of our city was exclusively in the north. Now a regional investor has the courage to create a sensational counterpoint in the south, which will probably require a large spatial development around Wollhausplatz. The administration has been planning for this event for years, so we can expect not only the Wollhaus as a new installation, but also a hopefully epochal change in the environment, including Urban and Wilhelmstrasse and hopefully a railway line from the south.
THE TIME IS RIPE, one might say. If not now then when?
There is already so much attention to detail in the design at this stage, a vineyard in the pedestrian zone, for example.
'Progress is the realization of ideas' opined Oscar Wilde to similar projects decades earlier.
So much imagination awakens not only visions, but also desires, for example maximum quota for social housing.
If we all want to push our ideas into it, then it will be difficult. If we assume that we get a market interest rate like we already had, e.g. 9,5%, then everything might take longer or make the project no longer calculable.
Our main interest must therefore be to reach the goal quickly. The year 2028 is calling Arthur Neufeld, the investor. Sporty and admirable.
He brought great consultants on board. Klaus Striebich, formerly in the leadership of the German Ece Group and Prof. Dr. Christian Buer, hotel professor, both have experience in the field, in the region and also in the world. Your names sound good to us. The same applies to the architecture office Blocher Partners. Outletcity Metzingen, including the Boss store there, Engelhorn Mannheim, Hilton Garden Inn and Zenstore in Bangkok are just a few stations outside of our city for this office.
Zenstore in Bangkok, one may admit that one really gets into raptures. We were allowed to see the wonderful roof terrace in the media. There a zen garden. After all, not every city has a Zen master like Heilbronn. We all realize that Wollhaus fires inner-city imaginations.
As far as optics are concerned, we know that the facades, which are already demanding, are initially just placebos; more detailed design ideas follow here.
If you compare today's planning to that of the last investors, the companies Strabag and also Lisker / Tyskland, we realize that we have arrived in modern times and not only because of the consideration of climate change with the dark green roof and photovoltaics.
Strabagplanning, for example, maximum spatial utilization was enhanced by the façade. One might almost say it's good that we gave not only the concrete but also the architecture time to mature. You may pass the main train stations in Mannheim and Heidelberg. Countless new buildings. Beautiful facades, but blocks with maximized use of space.
Green, green, green and what is shown is just the beginning, because it will grow over, so we are already looking forward to the first aerial photo. Green shopping city Heilbronn is a sensational headline for the future. Green from the BUGA site over the Neckar Mile to the Wollhaus and that too with a vineyard.
Our well-read city council colleague Christopher Trossbach even speaks of the Hanging Gardens of Heilbronn.
The mixture makes it, we have department stores in good quality. In addition to trade and the already mentioned green space, the city primarily needs sustainability, high-quality living, a mix for young and old and! touch of the senses.
What has been a problem in recent years, large vacancies, discussions about Kaufhof and Wollhaus, now presents itself as a mega opportunity after the opening of K3 in the last millennium, Stadtgalerie and Klosterhof. Suddenly we get large and designable areas, which Heilbronn never really had, apart from the projects mentioned above.
The thoroughfare from Fleiner Straße to what was then the bus station is downright brilliant.
About the hotel, there will certainly be questions. Two will be built elsewhere pending completion or are pending approval. Do we have too many is the question?
Anyone who hears that in some chain hotels the room price is sometimes up to €200 during the week and knows that competition can lower prices will find the planned hotel a good thing. When it comes to accommodation, houses also score with details. If the interested parties choose a provider that uses the reception 24/7 as a bar, then that is an additional success factor. And anyone who knows what unique selling point a hotel roof terrace has, knows that the hotel can be successful.
But we still don't know about the trade, the gastronomy or the hotel name. We're all super excited about that. Trade and thus Germany's pedestrian zones have changed massively. It is played with attractions. Just goods are no longer enough. In 1911, a merchant built the largest organ in the world in his department store, Breuninger, has always lured people into and through the house with top gastronomy, Engelhorn & Sturm in Mannheim even with star gastronomy and, because he writes, he writes, L & T in Osnabrück with a surfing wave in the basement
This planning can make you happy. Heilbronn is a cross with the pedestrian zone and Kaiserstrasse. We know from the financial mayor's master plan that gastronomy in particular enlivens the city. Gastronomy in the K3, in the Neckarturm and the Parkhotel form three end points that we have been able to realize over the decades and thus frequency magnets. Arthur Neufeld completes the Heilbronner Kreuz with, among other things, the market hall, a rooftop restaurant and the roof terrace, through it our four tension points for pedestrians are complete.
The Athens Charter separated living, working, leisure and movement. That was meaningful for centuries. Who would have liked to live next to chimneys in old England or in the Ruhrpott. Today everything grows together again. Living, working, shopping, fitness, retail, gastronomy and market hall. And Heilbronn can set an example.
The photos were provided by Neufeld Immobilien. © Neufeld Immobilien GmbH
