Otto Partner Architects
Otto Partner Architekten AG is a Swiss architecture firm based in Liestal BL. The architecture office has existed without interruption with partners that have changed over the decades and accordingly different names since 1901 and is one of the oldest architecture offices in the German-speaking area.
history
In 1901 Wilhelm Brodtbeck founded his own architecture office in Liestal as the “first academically trained architect from Baselland ” . During his fifty years of professional activity, numerous villas were built with references to neoclassicism , but at the same time industrial buildings, for example for Sandoz , with borrowings from modernism .
In 1925 Fritz Bohny joined as a partner, the office was named W. Brodtbeck & Fr. Bohny Arch. In 1951 Wilhelm Brodtbeck left the office, but chose his successor himself. Rolf G. Otto joined the office upon invitation . The new name for the office community was Bohny & Otto . After leaving the company, Brodtbeck continued to work independently and realized houses and buildings for the regional cement factory in which he was a partner. In 1956, Fritz Bohny left the Bohny & Otto office community for reasons of age , and Rolf Georg Otto ran the office in Liestal under his own name. Numerous buildings in modern regionalism were built in and around Liestal, including many residential buildings that clearly show the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture .
While Otto continued to run the office in Liestal that Wilhelm Brodtbeck had taken over, from 1957 to 1963 he worked intensively with the sculptor Walter M. Förderer and the architect Hans Zwimpfer . The office of Förderer, Otto + Zwimpfer was based in Basel and caused a sensation, especially with its exposed concrete buildings, namely the commercial college in St. Gallen and the secondary schools in Aesch and Basel in the brutalist style . In 1963 Rolf G. Otto left the office community Förderer, Otto + Zwimpfer and only continued his office in Liestal. Hans Zwimpfer took over the management of the former office community in Basel, Walter M. Förderer also left the Basel office community and became a professor in Karlsruhe.
Continuing economic success led from 1963 to an expansion of the Liestal office taken over by Wilhelm Brodtbeck. Since 1963 Peter Müller was a partner of Rolf G. Otto. Employees were the architects Mario Cerri (from 1966), Andreas Ruegg (from 1968) and Joachim Geier (from 1971). From 1973 the office was called Otto + Partner AG Liestal . Andreas Ruegg and Joachim Geier also became partners; Otto and Ruegg were responsible for the design.
In 1977 the Otto + Associati SA Lugano branch was opened under the direction of Fritz Rüsch, followed in 1985 by Otto + Partner AG Rheinfelden under the direction of Mario Cerri. The Otto + Associati SA Lugano became independent in 1997 and still exists today as an independent architectural firm.
Rolf G. Otto left the office community in 1993, the remaining partners Mario Cerri, Andreas Ruegg and Joachim Geier continued to run the office under the established name of Otto + Partner AG . The partnership was expanded in 2002 and Andri Seipel, who has been with the company since 1996, also became a partner.
In 2018 Otto + Partner AG merged with Wandeler & Stocker Architekten GmbH to become Otto Partner Architekten AG . Today Otto Partner Architekten AG employs around 50 people under the management of four partners Thomas Wandeler, Reto Koch, Georg Stocker and Andri Seipel.
Buildings (selection)
- 1902–1904: Garonne house, Liestal
- 1911: Education Center in Lieren
- 1916: Schoolhouse on the Rotacker, Liestal. Cultural property of regional importance in Switzerland with KGS number 9017
- 1921: Wasserhaus residential colony, Münchenstein
- 1937: Sandoz administration building , Basel
- 1937: Reconstruction of the town hall, Liestal
- 1938: Stadtcasino , Basel
- 1939: Sandoz administration building, Basel (today Novartis AG, building 200)
- 1942: Tonwerk, Lausen
- 1945: Factory Waggon Schindler AG , Pratteln
- 1949: Station building, Liestal
- 1952: Cantonal administration building, Liestal
- 1954: Commercial school, Liestal
- 1957: Building Dufourstrasse 50, University of St. Gallen (formerly University of Economics and Social Sciences)
- 1958: Realschule, Aesch
- 1961: Otto single-family house. Cultural property of regional importance in Switzerland with KGS number 9141
- 1965: Realschule, Frenkendorf
- 1972: Gridli indoor swimming pool, Liestal
- 1974: Aargau construction and management school (today an education center), Unterentfelden
- 1964–1975: Kongresshaus, Lugano
- 1977: Federal Center for Youth and Sport , Tenero
- 1987: New administration building Gutsmatte, Liestal
- 1990: JRG Gunzenhauser AG distribution center, Sissach
- 1999: UBS building, Liestal
- 2001: Community customs facility, Rheinfelden
- 2005: Flieger-Restaurant Runway 34 at Zurich Airport, Opfikon
- 2008: Administration building Feldschlösschen Getränke AG, Rheinfelden
- 2008: Albanhof residential and commercial development, Pratteln
- 2010: Bus terminal at Dornach-Arlesheim train station
- 2014: Baselland integration center
- 2016: Helvetia Tower, Pratteln
- 2017: Frenke school building, Liestal
Awards and exhibitions
- 1978: Basel Heimatschutz Prize
- 1987: Award for good buildings in Basel-Stadt / Baselland
- 1992: Award for good buildings in Basel-Stadt / Baselland
- November 2007 - April 2008: Exhibition “From Brodtbeck and Bohny to Otto + Partner.” Liestal Poet and City Museum
Publications
- The work: Architecture and Living , The New School House in Liestal, Volume 5 (1918), Issue 12
- The work: Architecture and Living , Architect's Home in Liestal, Volume 48 (1961), Issue 11
- The work: Architecture and Living , New Casino Basel, November 1942, issue 11
- Silvia Kugler in Du, cultural monthly , volume 23 (1963), page 6
- German construction newspaper , "Park" restaurant in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, October 1965 edition
- Deutsche Bauzeitung , University of Economics and Social Sciences, St. Gallen, August 1966 edition
- F. Maurer in Cementbulletin , Architecture and Art in the University of St. Gallen for Economic and Social Sciences, edition 12/1966, year 34
- The work: Architecture and Living , Congress Center Lugano, Volume 60 (1975), Issue 2
- The work: Architecture and Living , Indoor Swimming Pool in Liestal, Volume 63 (1976), Issue 11
- Archithese , project competition Centro Sportivo, issues 13 and 14/1978
- Paolo Fumagalli in Werk, Bauen + Wohnen , Hotel Castello in Bellinzona, edition 10/1988
- Alberto Alessi in Domus , extension of the Baselland State Archives Liestal, No. 907, 10/2007
- Baunetz_Wissen , State Archives in Liestal, accessed on March 14, 2018
- Beat Kreienbühl in Schweizer BauJournal , new building of the municipality of Magden, issue 1/2008
- Manuel Pestalozzi in Architecture & Technology , Dornach-Arlesheim Bus Terminal, issue 10/2010 PDF accessed on March 14, 2018
- Katharina Marchal on the mezzanine floor , bus terminal Dornach-Arlesheim, issue 8 / August 2010
- Manuel Pestalozzi in Architecture & Technology , Rhein-Apotheke Drogerie in Stein, Issue 1/2010
- Formness Architecture Magazine , Dornach-Arlesheim Bus Terminus, November 2010
- Basellandschaftliche Zeitung , two architects from Liestal merge, accessed on March 10, 2018
literature
- Martin Steinmann: Wilhelm Brodtbeck. In: Architectural Lexicon of Switzerland, 19./20. Century. Edited by Isabelle Rucki and Dorothee Huber. Basel 1998
- Hannes Ineichen (Ed.): Rolf G. Otto. Buildings and projects 1952–1993. Verlag Niggli, Sulgen 2003, ISBN 3-7212-0483-2 . (Volume 7 of the series of monographs on Swiss architects. )
- From Brodtbeck and Bohny to Otto + Partner. Architecture from Liestal since 1901. Exhibition catalog. 2007.