These Biberach projects have cost the building mayor a lot of nerves

School and sports mile: The idea of ​​lining up all secondary schools and sports facilities along an axis west of the railway line “like a string of pearls” dates back to the time when Kuhlmann was head of the town planning office in Biberach. “The idea, in which the then First Mayor Roland Wersch was also involved, was based on the fact that the schools could use various shared facilities due to the short distances,” says Kuhlmann.

Kuhlmann now describes the fact that the local council agreed to this and did not pursue a second sports area in Weisses Bild as a “groundbreaking” decision. This formed the basis for the sale of the old Dollinger secondary school and the new building on Wilhelm-Leger-Straße, as well as for the construction of the Leger sports hall, the indoor swimming pool and the youth center. The newest building on the school and sports mile is the Mali sports hall.

“The new secondary school (construction costs 45 million euros; construction period 2011-2013) was the first big challenge for me as mayor for construction,” says Kuhlmann. We succeeded in building the largest secondary school in the country in such a way that it meets the requirements of modern learning with its learning islands outside the classroom. “But it was not just the functional aspect that was important to me, but also the architectural culture aspect.” People should feel comfortable in a building, it should be remembered. “That can be achieved with good, sensible design,” says the mayor for construction.

The new Mali Hall also follows this principle. “With regard to the grey energy, I still believe that we should have left the old hall standing and renovated it.” “That would have been more sustainable,” says Kuhlmann. However, the majority of the council did not follow this recommendation in June 2016.

Kuhlmann particularly likes to remember the construction of the youth center because of the participation process. In 2013, the young people were able to influence the design of the three architects’ drafts via Facebook.

The municipal high schools PG and WG are located not far from the youth center. After the construction of a new shared cafeteria and media library (2008), the WG was renovated during Kuhlmann’s term of office and the renovation of the PG was initiated. It will cost 48 million euros so that the PG is no longer considered an “energy guzzler.”

A stone’s throw away is a project from which Kuhlmann has recently learned a lot: the Memelstrasse energy center, to which the new district heating network is connected. Before the war in Ukraine and the impending energy crisis, the local council decided to build the network on its own. “All respect for the courage, but it was absolutely the right decision,” says Kuhlmann. The district heating supply is now a self-running business. “We can’t escape the inquiries.” The topic cost him a lot of nerves, “because it was completely new territory for the building department,” says Kuhlmann.

Inner city ring: A few years ago, the mayor for construction had to endure harsh criticism for the new buildings on Zeppelinring and Bismarckring. There was talk of “concrete Kuhlmann” and “block architecture”, although the mayor for construction did not plan the buildings himself.

“The decisive and important step was that we said in the 2008 urban development concept that we wanted to concentrate services directly on the street on the outer ring, because living there is not possible,” says Kuhlmann. The nucleus for this had been the medical center years before. Together with the municipal utility’s parking garage, this has established itself as a source of footfall for the city center. “We have operated active project development sites for the city here and also on the neighboring former GM site.”

Old plans for a road tunnel under the Eselsberg were shelved to clear the way for the development of the area. In addition to the new building for the Kreissparkasse, other new office buildings were built (including BKK-VerbundPlus). These act as noise protection, so that housing could be built behind them. According to Kuhlmann, it proved to be a good idea to require investors to carry out multiple assignments “in order to achieve optimum functionality and design”. “In my view, this is a successful example of how a city can develop further.” “We have a high density of housing and services,” says Kuhlmann.

And what about the criticism of the “block architecture”? “Lovely facades are no longer affordable today. Then there are the energy requirements and the demands on modern offices. The result is facades like those we see here and elsewhere,” says the building mayor. But if you look closely, you can see that these are high-quality finishes.

Old Post Office Area/Hotel Aiden/Tax Office: These projects have also been the subject of fierce criticism in recent years. The old post office building, which has since been demolished, was of a high quality when it was built, but this was lost through renovations over the decades, says Kuhlmann. What many people did not know: “The post office had long since ceased to be the owner, but rather a fund from Luxembourg, which later sold the building to a private investor.”

This was followed by a struggle lasting several years to find an acceptable architecture and a sensible use for the new building. With the solution now built, with a Rewe supermarket and senior citizen apartments, this was finally achieved after a laborious process. “For the city, this is a significant upgrade compared to the official status,” says Kuhlmann.

There was also a long-standing tug-of-war over the former EVS building. This was due to a land easement for the site in the USA. When the signs were pointing towards complete demolition, the new investor found a solution that kept the part of the building to the north and only built a new building on Bahnhofstrasse (Hotel Aiden). From Kuhlmann’s point of view, this was a successful project.

From an urban planning perspective, however, he is critical of the precast concrete facade of the tax office on the opposite side. “As a city, we would have liked to have had a glass facade, but that failed because the state had to cut costs during construction,” says Kuhlmann.

The structure of dense development on the Ring is to be continued in the future on the site of the former Hepp car dealership. Kuhlmann’s successor Simon Menth will now have to take care of this.