2021-07-21
Construction status report from 20 July 2021
So what’s new on the construction site at Wilhelmstrasse 1? The inner courtyard of the Reinhard Ernst Museum has been completely glazed – we shall have more to say about the glass later on in this article. The natural stone mason takes care of the downstream trade; as such, he was able to start by installing parts of the granite facade in the atrium.
A lot of work is being done on the utilities in the building. We can see that sections have been laid for electrical connections. But metres of new water and ventilation pipes are also running through the museum every day. Drywall has been installed on the ground floor. The large red steel girders that have supported the ceiling of what will be the museum shop later on have now disappeared. They were dismantled and removed at night so the traffic on Wilhelmstrasse and Rheinstrasse could flow unimpeded during the day.
Further supply lines are currently being laid and trenches dug in the “moat” around the building. The trenches are large, black canisters that are sunk into the ground. They capture rainwater and slow down its escape into the sewer, so the sewer system is not overloaded even in the event of heavy rainfall. Planting vegetation on the roof will ensure additional flood retention. The meander mats on which the seeds are to be sown are now ready. Green roofs are a worthwhile investment for the environment, not least because of climate change.
A leak test will be carried out on the roof in a few days. As such, the roof is moistened with a film of water and then subjected to a low voltage. Wherever a loss of voltage is detected could be where a leak exists. But Jasmin Veigel, the project manager at Schneider + Schumacher, is certain that “the roof is tight.”
As promised, here’s a closer look at the glass that is installed at the Reinhard Ernst Museum. The glass facades are supplied by the Allgäu company Rupert App in Leutkirch. The Reinhard Ernst Museum is in good hands here. Among the more than 200 construction projects in Germany in which App has been involved with its facades are the new Henninger Tower, the Goetheplaza and the Taunusturm in Frankfurt, the Paulaner building in Munich, the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen or the futuristic JOH3 gallery in Berlin. App operates three factories – for facade construction, steel construction and the production of aluminium frames. Around 270 people are employed at the Leutkirch site.
The glass facades at the Reinhard Ernst Museum consist of six-centimetre-thick triple insulating glass. They meet both climatic as well as soundproofing requirements. The heat stays inside, the cold outside. Noise is reduced by 45 decibels – so you’re no longer likely to hear any twittering birds inside the building. Glass measuring 1,200 square metres – the area of an Olympic swimming pool – will be installed in and around the museum. The largest pane of glass that has been installed in the atrium measures 2.5 x 6 metres and weighs 1.1 tonnes. If all the windows in the museum were to be placed on a scale, they would amount to 88,000 kilograms, which would be the equivalent of 14 fully-grown elephants (and one baby pachyderm).
As in previous construction status reports, this time we would also like to introduce to you the people involved in building the museum – in this case those mainly concerned with glass.
Oliver Kirner is the senior construction site manager at App. His accent gives away the fact that he was born and grew up in the Allgäu. Kirner comes directly from Leutkirch – the very place in which the facade elements for Rupert App are also made. Even as a teenager, he had summer jobs there and after finishing school, he completed an apprenticeship as a fitter at App. Since he graduated as top of his class, he was offered a two-and-a-half-year training programme to become a technical draughtsman. Oliver was able to use the planning skills he acquired on site for the first time at the Henninger Tower in Frankfurt, where he worked until 2016. He then worked on the construction of the Experimenta Science Centre in Heilbronn. When Lidl’s German head office was built in Bad Wimpfen, he was entrusted with the position of senior construction site manager. And now, at the age of just 27, Oliver is responsible for the glass facades at the Reinhard Ernst Museum. His tasks include procuring the required material in good time as well as monitoring the professional attachment of sections and glass. The next stage is the glazing of the bistro, where the columns for the post and beam facade are already waiting.
From Monday to Thursday, Oliver Kirner stays in a furnished apartment in central Wiesbaden. On Thursday evening, it takes him just under four hours to drive to his home town, where he completes his paperwork at App’s head office. The fact that he can only be at home at weekends is not a problem for Oliver. Of course, he misses his girlfriend and the natural scenery of the Allgäu and the Alpine Views (as a district in Leutkirch happens to be named). But he greatly enjoys his job and collaboration with his co-workers on the building site, and he also thinks the Hessian state capital is a great place to live. His girlfriend visited him recently; the two of them strolled through the city of Wiesbaden and took the Nerobergbahn funicular railway up to enjoy the view of the city. “Wiesbaden is really beautiful!” A small piece of Baden-Württemberg that sits in his site container may also help cure his travel bug: a mug with the logo of his VfB Stuttgart football team…
Oliver has not yet developed any real liking for abstract art. In February 2022 he will have completed his assignment in Wiesbaden but will definitely return once the Reinhard Ernst Museum has opened. He will then not only look through his glass facades but of course at the paintings on display as well.
Finally, we would like to mention an appliance with which the man from the Allgäu has equipped his container room and has deeply impressed everyone working on the site: his Wurster makes every tradesman’s dreams come true. “You can use it to grill sausages perfectly all round – without any splashes of fat!”, Oliver explains enthusiastically. Even the thickness of the sausages can be adjusted. “You simply push the button down like on a toaster and after the specified grilling time, the edible sausage jumps up.” Michael Müller (who we introduced to you here) is also said to have acquired this miracle machine as well. Wilhelmstrasse 1 is therefore not only a place for abstract art but apparently for culinary trends too.
(Museum construction photos: Frank Marburger/Klaus Helbig)