The people of Bad Homburg will only find out in late summer or autumn what the Kurhaus might look like if it were to be rebuilt and not renovated.

The jury of the ideas competition, for which the participants were asked to present a modern variant and one with a historic facade, did not decide on a single winner on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Bernhard Biener

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Hochtaunus district.

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    Instead, several drafts were selected from which a solution is now to be worked out that all three owners can live with.

    In addition to the city, the Maritim-Hotel and Taunussparkasse are also involved in the property through complicated constructions.

    Seven architectural offices from Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart have submitted entries for the competition.

    You were not only asked to come up with two different optical solutions.

    No false expectations

    The exercise book included a wide range of possible uses, including a theater, but also suggestions for transport links and the surrounding area.

    In front of the Kurhaus there is not only a space used for many events, but also a bus station.

    The previous underground car park exits lead into the spa district and across a pedestrian zone.

    The drafts were actually supposed to be presented in July.

    But one does not want to arouse false expectations, said Mayor Alexander Hetjes (CDU), because what can actually be achieved in the end will now be worked out in the project phase in consultation with the co-owners.

    It doesn't help to show beautiful models that turned out differently in the end.

    “The specialist judges also advised not to stir up emotions in this way,” said Kurdirektor Holger Reuter.

    Three designs with a historical facade and two with a modern design were selected from the contributions.

    Since a modern and a historical one come from one office, four architectural offices are still involved.

    The decision was made consciously against a realization and an ideas competition, said Hetjes.

    In this way, you are not tied to a winning design, but can combine individual solutions: "We buy ideas."

    Tremendous challenges

    Some have good suggestions for traffic, others for room layout.

    In any case, the challenges are enormous, because the listed Kurhausgarten and the historic houses all around draw a tight building limit.

    The Maritim Hotel also wants to expand.

    "The question now is: what can the owners live with, and what can be implemented?"

    Citizens should also have a say.

    But there will be no referendum that the city council wanted.

    That was foreseeable: "The Hessian municipal code only allows questions that can be answered with yes or no," said the mayor.

    But in Bad Homburg, in addition to two new construction variants, a renovation of the Kurhaus is also up for debate.

    A “trend survey” is therefore being considered.

    Every Bad Homburg resident who is older than 16 will be written to and informed, announced Hetjes.

    Digital voting via the internet will also be possible.

    The survey is not legally binding.

    "We will communicate the result of the city council with the owners," said the mayor.

    The latter are another reason why a referendum would have reached legal limits: The citizens would have decided on the private property of third parties.

    Hetjes expects the exhibition of a feasible design and public participation to be possible this year.

    The renovation report should also be available by then.

    Reuter was impressed by the extensive investigations for which the engineers evaluated the supply structure and carried out core drillings into the substance.

    "A resilient price tag"

    “In the end we will have a resilient price tag,” said the spa director.

    Hetjes called it a further challenge to develop a figure from the rough cost estimates for the new building designs that can be compared with the very precisely calculated renovation costs.

    For the preparations so far, such as the feasibility study, the competition and the renovation report, two million euros are budgeted.

    Today's Kurhaus was opened in 1984.

    Should the decision be made in favor of a historicizing facade, it would in future be reminiscent of the building by the Belgian architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar, which existed from 1863 to 1945.

    It is still unclear what a new or as good as new spa facility will cost.

    The Lord Mayor is certain that one way or another it will be the largest and most important project in the city for the next 60 years.