He planned Frankfurt's north-west city and saw in his apartment in the district how one of its listed buildings was falling into disrepair.

How the building he had once designed crumbled and was smeared, how apparently nobody knew what to do with the former youth center of a reform community.

On Thursday morning, the 93-year-old architect Tassilo Sittmann was sitting in his wheelchair in front of the renovated house, and tears of joy came to his eyes.

Theresa White

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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    The social department and the KEG Konversions-Grundstücksentwicklungs-Gesellschaft and the social department have handed over the new social and cultural center at Gerhart-Hauptmann-Ring 398 to the users.

    In the future, the house with its bright foyer, which is now called Tassilo-Sittmann-Haus, will have a daycare center, a place for clubs and celebrations and an open civic café;

    58 apartments for the homeless have been built in two outbuildings.

    It was a long way to get there.

    Two buildings demolished in 2001

    The listed building was used until 1997 for youth work, as a kindergarten and for community events. Because the church could no longer hold it, it was sold. Investors wanted to build row houses there, but went bankrupt. Two buildings of the entire ensemble were demolished in 2001. The community center and the neighboring sexton's house were placed under monument protection in 2007, but fell into disrepair due to the ongoing vacancy.

    In 2008, the district management founded a group of interested citizens who worked out suggestions for further use.

    A public meeting point should be created that strengthens the citizens' identification with the district and offers space for events.

    In 2011 the social department, the district management of the Diakonisches Werk and the KEG presented a concept for development.

    Rainer Wrenger, the then managing director of the engineering office BSMF, to which the KEG belongs, pushed the planning forward, as Daniela Birkenfeld (CDU) said.

    It was largely thanks to him that the project could be implemented.

    In 2013, the association VOKUS 398 came into being as an amalgamation of the many interest groups, which has persistently campaigned for the repair of the house.

    House with a slate facade

    The KEG took over the financing and structural implementation of the project;

    the state of Hesse funded the project with around 850,000 euros, the city gave 140,000 euros from the program to modernize the housing stock.

    The renovation began in mid-2018.

    The completion of the building was celebrated by the future tenants, such as the social pedagogical association that will operate the daycare center, together with the diverse group that was involved in the project.

    Building management, for example, will take over Smart Work, an integrative educational institution, and Diakonie will open a counseling center.

    In the beautifully renovated house with a slate facade and large windows, there is a large hall, three group rooms, a kitchen, a recording studio and an exercise room, as well as a large kitchen. The husband donated this to the social affairs officer. Birkenfeld said she was particularly pleased that this project, which had been on her table for a very long time, was finished before she was voted out of office. "I'm proud that we managed to do this together."

    The restoration of the old community center as a cultural and social center for the north-west city is an important building block for the coexistence there, said Birkenfeld. The managing director of the KEG, Klaus-Peter Kemper, said it was a good example of conversion - the recovery of a building. "The building had fallen empty, now it has many users again." The project shows how empty existing buildings can be revitalized. People who do not have an apartment have been living in the outbuildings since 2015, and the daycare center will soon also be moving in. The name giver of the house is happy about it - after the many years in which the architect Tassilo Sittmann had to watch his work deteriorate.