Heierstrasse, Viersen

Heierstrasse, Viersen
Originally uploaded by Viersener.

These agreeable late 19th/early 20th century buildings in the lower end of the Heierstrasse (close to the High Street/Hauptstrasse) are awaiting renovation. The carrot of being allowed to construct new buildings in the open space to the right is offered to investors who will take the task on.

(The reddish building on the right is the same one viewed from the side in the picture below.)

Side-view Jugendstil house in Heierstrasse, Viersen, March 2006

Side-view Jugendstil house in Heierstrasse, Viersen, March 2006
Originally uploaded by Viersener.

Viersen City Council plans to block the passageway between this abandoned, half-derelict house and the buildings opposite, filling the space with new construction.

This will remove the pedestrian short-cut into Viersen High Street (Hauptstrasse), close off an open space, and replace an interesting, slightly eccentric section of the city with standard architecture. One can only hope the council profits handsomely from this misguided plan.

Viersen Council Buildings, March 2006

Viersen Council Buildings, March 2006
Originally uploaded by Viersener.

An uncanny combination of modern classical and brutalist architecture. Long, thin, uniform rows of smallish windows are squeezed into a facade too small for them.

The blocked windows to the right are especially intriguing, as one assumes the council buildings would be exempt from 18th century-style window taxes.

Viersen Town Hall, March 2006

Viersen Town Hall, March 2006
Originally uploaded by Viersener.

Light rain has brought out the colour of the buildings on a drab day, darkening the black stairs and the orange-brown brick.

This perspective rather flatters the architecture, giving it a cohesiveness of shapes which is lacking in its actual context.

Viersen's Plans For Festhalle Area

Viersen City Council has plans for the area around the Festhalle, the specific effects of which the blog will cover over the coming days.

The first major stage is about to be signed off by the Council. It involves the sale of Council land between Wilhelm- and Heimbachstrasse, the grounds of the old Gymnasium. New homes for the old and a car-parking deck are to be built. The car park is necessary because the new building will cover existing parking arrangements, which are already overstretched at busy times and which this new development will likely exacerbate.

The centrist CDU party is saying the development is going too fast. "We don't want another Rathausmarkt," says Fritz Meies in today's Rheinische Post, referring to the controversial buildings which went up there with, apparently, too little political supervision. A working group will be set up to examine the plans in more detail.

In fact, this first part of the council plan seems relatively benign, even if one might question the wisom of enclosing and covering part of one open, single-level car park in order to construct another one, which will be on more levels. Succeeding stages are likely to be more controversial and less attractive to private investment than this first stage.

It might be better if the Council looked at the plans in toto, taking into account not only to its effects on local parking, but on the many existing empty buildings. These abound in the area, several of great architectural refinement and beauty. Private investment, of course, is more attracted to building new large-scale structures than in the painstaking restoration of existing architecture. But in a juster world, the Council would priorise saving existing Jugendstil/Art Nouveau buildings ahead of the more megalomaniac construction of large-scale new buildings, which are invariably of far, far poorer quality.

Festhalle, Viersen (I), March 2006

Festhalle, Viersen (I), March 2006

This agreeable neo-Classical building was completed in 1912. The square in front of it is used for twice-a-week open-air markets.

Mural in Lyceum Gardens (I), Viersen, March 2006

Mural in Lyceum Gardens (I), Viersen, March 2006

The decay into which these interesting murals have been allowed to degenerate shows disastrous priority-setting by Viersen Council, which should really be doing more to safeguard Viersen's scarce stock of decorative architecture.

Festhalle, Viersen (II), March 2006

Festhalle, Viersen (II), March 2006

Mural in Lyceum Gardens (II), Viersen, March 2006

Mural in Lyceum Gardens (II), Viersen, March 2006

St Michael's Waldniel, Kreis Viersen

St Michael's Waldniel, Kreis Viersen

St Michael's Waldniel is being renovated; the front of the church has now been completed, but there is still scaffolding on the side of the church. Due to its size, St Michael's is also known as the "Schwalmtaler Dom".

Irmisgardkapelle, Viersen, March 2006

Irmisgardkapelle, Viersen
Originally uploaded by Claude de Bigny.

Irmisgardkapelle, on the Heiligenberg, in the Süchtelner Höhe in Viersen, is a 16th century chapel built on the (legendary) site of St Irmisgard's 11th century hermitage.

Viewed from above, one can see the tombstone-like stones leading toward the chapel.

Irmisgardkapelle, Heiligenberg, Süchteln, Viersen

Irmisgardkapelle, Heiligenberg, Süchteln, Viersen
Originally uploaded by Claude de Bigny.

Irmisgardkapelle - the classic snapshot, taken from the path beneath the chapel, and showing (foreground left) the spring St Irmisgard used when her legendary 11th century hermitage was situated here.

Irmisgardkapelle, Viersen, March 2006

Irmisgardkapelle, Viersen

The Irmisgardkapelle viewed from the side.