2021-04-21
Construction work as at 21 April 2021
In the last few days, the final ceiling at the Reinhard Ernst Museum has been concreted. The roofers have already started their sealing work on the main roof and will then tackle the insulation. The bonded screed in the engineering rooms on the first and second floors has almost hardened. The power supply connections from the ESWE utility company have been laid; tar work is currently taking place so that the traffic on Wilhelmstrasse will soon flow without interruption again.
You will shortly be able to experience the creation of a steel structure for what is known as the skylight – a dome of light on the roof at the corner of Rheinstrasse and Wilhelmstrasse. This structure is being built by the traditional Wiesbaden company Huhle, which is in demand all over Germany for ambitious projects in steel and metal. The skylight tops the highest exhibition space at 13 metres, and the dome is one of the most complex structures in the museum building.
Steel structures have also been erected inside in the meantime. For example, in the large engineering room in the basement. It is around 450 square metres in area and six metres high. A travelling trolley has been installed here in order to lift heavy loads from the upper to the lower level. This is essentially a roller mechanism, which moves along a girder. It is reminiscent of the ability of cats to balance on high walls and move safely on them. The trolley in the museum is capable of transporting objects weighing up to a ton on the hook of a chain hoist.
Apropos heavy goods, in early May we are expecting the delivery of Tony Cragg’s sculpture. The two parts of the artwork created especially for the Reinhard Ernst Museum that extends over two floors will then be lifted to the upper floor with a crane. A custom solution has had to be found for the installation of the work, because at the time of the idea for the sculpture was conceived, the structural analysis for the museum had already been completed. This is why the artwork will be placed on two steel girders facing upwards, which do not transfer the load to the ceiling below but to the walls. The floor structure in place later on means that visitors will no longer see anything of how this challenging task has been accomplished. But you can then pass on the knowledge you have just acquired to your amazed companions …
Behind the successful development of recent weeks and months are many committed people in Wiesbaden who are responsible for implementing the plans conceived in Tokyo. In our last building status report, we introduced Michael Müller, Salman Kholmi and Dzenan Mehmedovic. At this stage, let’s meet two other people on the construction site.
Paula Klemp grew up with and in museums. Even as a child, her parents took her to many opening events (where little Paula often waiting impatiently for the banquet to finally open). Her father worked as the director of science and art in Frankfurt, also later as the exhibition curator and deputy director of the Museum of Applied Art. His daughter studied architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt, completed six months of work experience at the Berlin office of the June14 architecture firm and joined Schneider + Schumacher as a student trainee during her university course. The company will ensure the planning for the Reinhard Ernst Museum is implemented; it has already been involved in numerous architectural projects of international status. After completing her studies in 2017, Klemp was taken on as a permanent member of the team at Schneider + Schumacher. Her initial projects included helping to plan the Goethehöfe, an ensemble of buildings in the Grosser Hirschgraben in Frankfurt’s old town. She then got involved in planning the Reinhard Ernst Museum, and she is now sitting with her co-worker Marcel Hündgen and her boss Jasmin Veigel in a container right next to the building shell to coordinate the construction work. Paula Klemp can clearly identify the Japanese influence on the architecture; in her opinion, Fumihiko Maki’s design is characterised among other things by its straight shapes, stringent lines and extreme attention to details. She is already looking forward to the abstract art in the new museum.
Ðuro Opacic was born in Knin, in the hinterland of Dalmatia. At the age of 17, right after leaving school, he followed his father who was already working on building sites in Germany. After two years, he completed his military service in the Serbian armed forces, but then returned immediately to the Rhine-Main area. Opacic started working as a bricklayer, but he was no longer able to do this job due to a slipped disc. The Serb is a multi-talented worker on the building site and knows how to operate a crane. In his 46 years in construction, he has literally experienced quite a few ups and downs. He was there for the construction of the 155-metre-high towers of Deutsche Bank as well as for work underground on Frankfurt’s metro system lines. Ðuro Opacic can also look back at the bridges he has helped to construct. At the Reinhard Ernst Museum he is employed as a concrete worker. “In November I’m off”, says the 65-year-old, as he then wants to retire. He still does not know whether he will continue to live near his children and grandchildren in Frankfurt or will move to his wife’s relatives near Belgrade. He will probably do both. He thinks his last major project, the Reinhard Ernst Museum, is rather unusual. Such high rooms, so many walls with so few windows, such thick walls – Ðuro Opacic has never seen the like of it in all those years …