Frankfurt is celebrating its revitalized Altstadt [historical city center]

Frankfurt reclaims a piece of history. The Dom/Römer area has been open for pedestrian traf-fic since May 2018 and residents as well as tourist can enjoy the wonders of the new Altstadt Frankfurt. The official inauguration of the region took place on 28 - 30 September 2018.

The festival weekend opened on Friday with an official ceremony in St. Paul’s church. The fol-lowing festivities stretched far beyond the area of the DomRömer region. Concerts, theatre performances, discussions, presentations and exhibitions took place from the Main river banks to the Römerberg. The city’s development projects have been featured since the last century in the Deutschen Architekturmuseum [German museum of architecture] under titles such as “Die immer Neue Altstadt Bauen zwischen Dom und Römer 1900” [“The always new Old Town Center, buildings between the Dom cathedral and the Römer plaza 1900”.

The DomRömer district was completely destroyed during WWII - a fate that had met many German cities. The joy is therefore even greater for Frankfurt since they were able to recover a piece of that old tradition. “In the past four years 35 houses, the town house at the marketplace, the coronation route as well as all the landscaping were established on no more than 7.000 m² in the center of Frankfurt.”, says Isabelle Steffen, project manager for the construction logistics and health and safety coordination (SiGeKo).

The construction work between the Dom cathedral of St. Bartholomäus and the Römerberg in the historical city center of the metropolis on the Main began in 2012. Some of the duties of KREBS + KIEFER were managing the order awarding process, the construction logistics planning and monitoring, as well as the coordination of safety and health issues. KREBS+KIEFER was involved in the advanced stages of preparation measures and planning and thereby was able to steadily expand its scope of services for the project.

Ms Steffen remembers the process: “Planning was our real challenge. ‘How could this mega project be realized in the middle of Frankfurt’s city center, on schedule, cost-effectively, and compliant with quality standards?’. The architects invested a great number of their ideas into the final product. It was our job to plan the way to get there.”

Participants are now happy about the successful project, giving the city another point of distinction, and allowing the competent engineers to be proud of their achievements.