Everything is fine on paper.

To be more precise, on the printed mesh tarpaulin made of wind-permeable nylon, which has been covering the Mainz town hall, which is in need of renovation and has been completely scaffolded, for a few days.

It is intended to show the viewer, who is standing on the currently unfinished Jockel-Fuchs-Platz, what the more than 50-year-old building will look like after the comprehensive modernization, which is expected to cost more than 100 million euros: namely roughly the same as before.

Markus Schug

Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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For years there had been vehement arguments about the inevitable core renovation of the building, which was designed by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen and his partner Otto Weitling.

The Mainz CDU in particular had repeatedly advocated the demolition or sale of the Jacobsen factory, which was highly praised by building historians and designers.

Emptied in a year

In the meantime, the heavy grids have been removed, the support structures of which were often badly rusted.

And the original natural stone facade made of Norwegian Porsgrunn marble also had to give way because the heavy slabs threatened to fall down.

In their place, once the house has been redesigned and completely renovated from the damp basement to the poorly insulated roof, significantly lighter ceramic elements from northern Italy will be installed.

According to the planners, they should look deceptively real thanks to a photorealistic 3D scanning process.

First, however, the five upper floors of the administration building, which has been a listed building since 2006, have to be cleared.

Everything that is to be reused later must be documented exactly, Gereon Lindlar, the consultant responsible for restoration issues in the project, revealed in an interview with media representatives.

For the upcoming town hall puzzle, around 12,000 individual parts such as hall lamps, water fittings or doors from built-in cupboards have to be removed and brought to a warehouse rented for this purpose in Bad Kreuznach.

The view of the "new old town hall"

In each individual case, it is necessary to precisely record the respective object and the location where it was previously using a computer program.

This is the only way for a restorer, for example holding a board from the council chamber in his hands, to see exactly where this or that part actually belongs with a click of the mouse.

According to Lindlar, the fifth floor of the town hall, which did not contain much worth preserving, has been cleared.

By the summer of next year, the entire Jacobsen building is to be emptied: including the wine tasting room in the basement, which is undoubtedly significant in terms of city history, in which guests have been served time and again since the times of the former mayor Jockel Fuchs (SPD) and, as far as has been handed down, also liked to have background discussions had been.

Whether and how exactly the furniture used there from the 1970s can continue to be used after the planned refurbishment of the town hall has apparently not yet been finally clarified.

The administration, which has been outsourced for almost three years, is to return to its original location on the Rhine in 2027, said Lord Mayor Michael Ebling (SPD) at the presentation of the printed scaffolding cover, which is about the size of half a football field and cost 100,000 euros.

It's not just about offering the people of Mainz a view of the "new old town hall".

Rather, the tarpaulin also protects the building itself and all those who will have to work on the large construction site in wind and weather in the future.