Heike Appel knows what she expects of the citizens in the European Quarter. Especially those who live within walking distance or even within sight of the Europagarten. Many of them moved into the adjacent houses with their families, trusting in the announcement that the “green heart” of the new district would be created on the almost six hectare area. When presenting the new concept for the garden, whose desolate condition is evident even in rainy summers like the last one, the head of the Frankfurt Parks Department first had her employees describe what additional qualities the park could have – but only in five years . The parks department calls the newly designed facility “Europagarten 2.0”. The city council will decide this year what this park will look like from summer 2029 and provide the necessary money. Provided that citizens and the local advisory board can be won over to the preliminary draft that has now been presented. However, it contains no indication of what inconveniences the residents will face in the coming years. Appel very briefly informed that the park will be completely renovated in two construction phases, but each in the same way. And from the end of next year.
First the meadow needs to be resurfaced. This begins with the felling of the trees there. A piece of the soil is then removed and the rest is loosened using a large machine that is otherwise used in mining. Intermediate vegetation, which can only be incorporated into the soil after a year, is intended to stabilize it. The first construction phase should be completed in the summer of 2027 and the redesign of the meadow could begin, among other things, with around 80 additional trees.
360 instead of 280 trees in the Europagarten
The same steps will then follow for the promenade, probably from the end of 2027. The felling of the 280 trees that are currently there is likely to mean the biggest inconvenience for residents and users of the garden. There, too, the overly compacted soil would be treated over a period of more than a year. According to Appel, the promenade is expected to open in the summer of 2029 according to current planning. The extent to which the park can be used in the meantime is still unclear. The playground and football field should not be affected, nor the western part of the park with the grass plantings.
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“It’s not nice,” commented Appel in front of the 30 or so residents present, with a view to the basic renovation, “but we don’t see any alternative.” Numerous soil and tree experts have confirmed that the park probably did not become heavily compacted during the construction phase ground could not remain like this. Appel dashed all hopes that the city would plant larger trees to provide shade in the summer in a few years. Younger specimens grew better, got used to the location better and quickly overtook all larger trees planted in growth. And, yes, there will be more trees in the new Europagarten. Instead of the current 280 copies, there would be 360 in the future. 35 more climate-resistant tree species would be selected.
The audience reacted to this information about the specific renovation steps that Appel put at the end of the event from calm to speechless. They had previously had a lively discussion about the preliminary draft for the “European Garden 2.0.”, which employees of the parks department had presented. “We never said we would do everything from scratch,” it said. “We will develop what is good.” So the waves of grass and the avenues that enable a central crossing of the park remain.
Curved paths are to be added. There is talk of flowering meadows and an enhancement of the grass zones with perennials; Above all, in the future there will be a functioning water feature including a fountain, a fitness facility with sports equipment for calisthenics and a wooden deck where the previously unusable water pools are located. According to the office, the park could also be supplemented with pergolas, park chairs, a double-barreled cable car and table tennis tables. There could also be a so-called sky swing and one of the currently popular “Tiny Forests”, i.e. a mini forest that could grow particularly quickly due to its very dense planting and thus quickly contribute to cooling down the city.
Frankfurt takes up ideas from citizens for Europagarten
Almost all ideas for play equipment and furniture come from suggestions from citizens. The Parks Department had invited people to participate in the planning several times. For example, around 60 people took part in a planning workshop at the parks department at the end of February. In addition, children and young people were asked separately about their wishes. From the numerous suggestions, the office, with the involvement of the Berlin office of Relais Landschaftsarchitekten, which was once commissioned to design the park, developed the preliminary draft for the redesign of the park that has now been presented.
However, this was met with a lot of skepticism and clear criticism. “Do you want to turn the Europagarten into an adventure park?” asked a resident. There is only talk about a lot of new play equipment, although the goal is to change the park, which everyone sees as a “barren desert”. “We want to talk about more trees, more greenery, about planting,” he continued, “now we’re just talking about recreational opportunities.”
A resident added that the park is already attracting “recreational tourism” with additional traffic. There is already a lot of furniture, there is no need to add more, criticized another. Why, he asked, does the city want to overcrowd this park? “Less is more,” he gave the group as his advice. Others were surprised at how much money the city was willing to invest when the parks department otherwise always complains about not having enough funds for the care of the greenery and the maintenance of playgrounds and park inventory. This will certainly also apply to the table tennis tables now planned in a few years.
