Michel Department Store
The former department store Michel , also known as House Fahrenkamp called, is a 1929-1930 erected under monument protection standing purchase house building in Wuppertal - Elberfeld , three-sided free-standing on the streets Turmhof, Wall located 15-21 and Church Street.
Building description
The eight-storey department store goes back to a commercial building built in 1914 for the same client on the corner plot of Kirchstrasse / Wall. At the beginning of 1929, the company Michel & Co. Nachf. AG commissioned the Düsseldorf architects Emil Fahrenkamp and Georg Schäfer to extensively rebuild this building and expand it on the adjacent corner plot to form the tower courtyard. Construction began in the spring of 1929 and was completed in June 1930. While Georg Schäfer, who is considered a department store specialist, designed the functional and structural concept, the much better known Emil Fahrenkamp was responsible for the architectural design - especially the new facade, the renovation and the Extension to a single building. Only the slight kink in the facade on the wall indicates that the building consists of two parts.
A distinctive feature of this reinforced concrete construction is the horizontal, layered division of the facade into window and parapet strips that run around all three sides and the rounded corners of the building without interruption. The parapets are clad with travertine panels and have strongly profiled cornices that add to the three-dimensional effect of the facade. The two top floors of the building are staggered back and therefore cannot be seen from the pedestrian perspective. The architectural style, which was modern at the time, was also reflected in the interior furnishings that were not preserved (see New Building , Classic Modernism , Bauhaus ). At the time, the building was considered "the most modern department store in West Germany".
history
The use of the building as a department store for the Michel company initially ended in 1931. From 1952, the building housed the Hertie department store , which later moved to a new building (demolished in 2007) on Neumarkt . There was a café on the roof terrace of the Michel department store until the 1970s , which was very popular as a dance café , especially in the early years .
In the early 1970s, the entire facade was with panels of aluminum clad, at that time the furniture store "West Furniture" used the building. After the building was entered on the list of monuments of the city of Wuppertal on April 11, 1994, several years passed before this disfiguring cladding was removed in 1999 and the facade was restored while preserving the steel windows. The SinnLeffers clothing store opened a branch in the building on September 13, 1999; it was closed on February 28, 2009.
The textile specialist store Hirschfeld is using part of the property as a new tenant, while the owner, the Hanau-based Albin and Aenne Witter Foundation , invests in fire protection, building services, facade and interior design. In the medium term, space for new retail stores is to be created on the lower floor; the upper floors are intended for offices and medical practices. As a result of the extensive renovation work, the building will be brought up to date in terms of energy and part of the facade elements will be replaced. As a result, the building will lose its legal protection as a monument, the city of Wuppertal has signed a contract with the owner - which is intended to permanently secure the original appearance of the building. In addition, the building is now to be marketed under the name "Haus Fahrenkamp".
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Sinn-Gebäude": Interior renovation, Wuppertaler Rundschau from January 13, 2010
- ↑ reliable dating according to: Heuter: Emil Fahrenkamp ..., p. 407 (for full title information see section "Literature")
- ↑ Successes for art research and preservation of monuments in the Rhineland ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. PDF file
- ↑ Kaufhaus Michel on Mirco Mankel's private page in Wuppertal ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Wuppertal Chronicle by Wolfgang Mondorf ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Sinn Leffers closes branch in Wuppertal - employees are laid off Westdeutsche Zeitung from October 6, 2008
- ↑ Hirschfeld goes to the Sinn-Leffers-Haus Westdeutsche Zeitung (online) on February 27, 2009
- ↑ Former Michel department store: Contract with investor ( Memento of the original dated December 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Message from the city of Wuppertal dated December 6, 2010
literature
- Christoph Heuter: Emil Fahrenkamp (1885–1966). Architect in the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area. Verlag Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2002, ISBN 3-93559037-7 .
- Silke Nasemann: The long history of the Michel department store. In: Bergische Blätter. Magazine for the Bergisches Land 24 (2008), pp. 8–9.
Web links
- Entry in the Wuppertal monument list
- Michel Department Store. In: arch INFORM .
- Department store Michel on Mirco Mankel's private Wuppertal site
- Department store Michel in the online architecture guide Wuppertal
- Mentioned in the list of works on a private page about Emil Fahrenkamp
- Photos in pseudo-3D and 2D of the renovation work in the Michel department store (more later)
Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 24.5 ″ N , 7 ° 8 ′ 47.2 ″ E