The Frankfurt Transport Company (VGF) wants to redesign its tram depot on Schwabstrasse in Eckenheim and is also planning additional buildings there.

As can be seen from the tender for the planning services, the planners should check whether residential and office buildings can also be built in addition to the depot.

A preliminary study by the architect Karl Dudler shows that the VGF is investigating whether it could possibly also move its headquarters to Schwabstrasse.

A bus depot is also part of the planning.

Rainer Schulze

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

Dudler developed three scenarios.

In one case, a building with a height of up to 14 stories would be erected next to the depot as VGF headquarters.

In another case, the administration building would be combined with the depot.

The invitation to tender is already running, the bids are to be submitted by September 28th.

According to the tender, the Eckenheim depot is 27,000 square meters in size and, in addition to the parking facility for the trams, also includes several workshop halls, some of which are combined to form a large, open workshop hall.

Seven hall roofs can be seen in aerial photographs.

Seldom used

The tracks are a little more than two kilometers long and, it is said, are rarely used.

A more than a hundred year old house and a container housing complex are located on the adjacent properties.

The neighboring rectifier plant was recently upgraded.

“A modern VGF location with a new depot” and other uses are to be built on the site, where competencies and capacities are bundled and which should help improve the image of VGF.

In the course of the planning, it should also be examined whether further future operational needs of VGF can be mapped in Eckenheim.

As part of the preliminary planning, variants are also to be examined which enable the 100-year-old apartment building to be preserved.

In the event of a demolition, VGF wants to offer the tenants on the site an adequate replacement.

The Frankfurt group of the Association of German Architects criticizes the fact that no architectural competition is to be held for the redesign of the tram depot in Eckenheim.

“We need a different procedure,” says chairman Moritz Kölling, citing the Kalkbreite project in Zurich as a model.

There, a newly built tram storage hall was "wrapped" with a block edge, which houses cooperative apartments and commercial premises.

According to a statement, the BDA generally welcomes the Frankfurt Transport Company's project in Eckenheim.

The property is "in a striking city entrance situation" and could act as an entrance in the future.

Frankfurt has hardly any sealed surfaces that have comparable potential for interior development.

"Quality city building block"

"The city must seize the great opportunity and build a high-quality urban building block here that integrates the district in terms of urban planning despite the large-scale depot use and enriches it functionally," write the architects and call for an open competition on a sound basis.

There are outstanding examples of hybrid uses and building typologies in Frankfurt and other cities.

The "Kalkbreite" in Zurich is an excellent residential project on an active tram depot in the city center.

The areas for the inner development of the city are precious, for this you need “strong ideas”, which should be explored in competition and concept processes.

In addition, properties owned by the public sector should not be sold, but given on a long lease, the BDA demands.