USFA housing estate General-Keyes-Straße

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General-Keyes-Strasse, odd numbers 1–11

The so-called USFA housing estate (originally also called Klein Amerika ) is a housing estate named after the United States Forces in Austria (USFA) along General-Keyes-Strasse in the Liefering district of Salzburg on the left side of the Glankanal on both sides of the Altglan. The street was named after Geoffrey Keyes , the US High Commissioner on the Allied Council for Austria . Since 2017, the majority of the estate has been a listed building ( list entries KG Maxglan , list entries KG Liefering ), less because of its artistic qualities, but more as a memorial and contemporary document.

background

With the non-fighting invasion of the Saalach Bridge from the direction of the neighboring Bavarian city of Freilassing and ultimately the crossing of the central Salzburg State Bridge by a tank of the 3rd Infantry Division of the 7th US Army on May 4, 1945 at 11:30 a.m. the Second World War ended for the city and state of Salzburg and the ten-year occupation began. On the same day, the American troops confiscated houses and apartments to accommodate members of the army, which marked the beginning of a long period of acute housing shortage for Salzburg. The "billeting office" founded in the summer of 1945 was intended as a first measure to alleviate the housing shortage to better organize the confiscations. At the end of 1947, a quarter of the Salzburg population was still sublet or every second household had subtenants. In December 1948, the USFA announced that of around 5200 apartments damaged by bombs, 3,200 had already been rebuilt and 96 confiscated residential buildings and 12 hotels had been released. The housing shortage remained explosive and was exacerbated by the need for accommodation for the American occupation forces.

history

The groundbreaking ceremony for the residential complex on General-Keyes-Straße took place on April 7, 1950. A total of 20 apartment blocks were to be used to create living space for the American officers' families. Six months after the groundbreaking, on October 7, 1950, the first residential building was ready. The housing estate was finally completed in September 1951.

architecture

Lots of green space between the individual residential buildings

The settlement stands in stark contrast to the local architectural tradition. The development of the block edge was dispensed with in favor of an open construction method, curved traffic and sidewalks as well as a remarkable number of parking spaces characterized the settlement both in 1951 and to this day. There is plenty of green space between the individual apartment blocks. The standardized floor plans testified to a generosity that was hardly known in Austria at the time.

The floor space was around 130 to 140 square meters per apartment; a third standard floor plan was 84 square meters. Most of the rooms were larger than 20 square meters. The apartments all had a built-in kitchen with a sink and refrigerator; the bathrooms were equipped as standard with a mirror cabinet, towel holder, toothbrush cup and holder, built-in cupboards and a bathtub. The rooms also have built-in wardrobes from the start. The settlement included a gas station at the entrance, a car repair shop and two department stores (so-called PX stores ), which turned the settlement into a town within the city in the 1950s - sometimes called "Little America" ​​by the Salzburg population until today .

meaning

The settlement documents about the quarter of a century from the end of the Second World War to the beginning of the 1970s, in which the city of Salzburg underwent very strong spatial changes. The houses also represent the occupation from 1945 to 1955, an essential part of the contemporary history of the Second Republic . The residential estate is also reminiscent of the Marshall Plan , the money from which also brought the state and city of Salzburg above-average growth rates and made it a very dynamic economic region of that time. With the construction of the settlement, the local economy was boosted. At the same time, “Little America” stands for the import of home decor. Equipping the apartments with central heating, hot water storage tanks, indoor toilets and built-in furniture generated a technological boost and helped to raise the standard of living in public housing.

There is a display board of the Lieferinger Kulturwanderweg about the importance of the settlement on General-Keyes-Straße .

Consolidation and modernization

After the Americans left, the residential buildings became property of the federal government ( BUWOG ), which sold them to private investors in 2003. An initiative by 170 tenants of the complex who wanted to buy their rental apartments had failed after two years. The owner has been GKS Liegenschaftsverwaltungs GmbH (GKS for General Keyes Straße ) since 2015 , half of which is owned by real estate investors Karl Weilhartner and Gerold Breinbauer. The GKS is implementing moderate redensification on the site, which was officially approved due to the spaciousness of the facility. In the gardens between the old multi-party houses, eight six-storey houses are still in the stage of completion (March 2019), the above-ground parking spaces will be moved to underground garages. The temporary rental apartments are marketed under the name Glanbogen residential complex . The invented name is explained by the fact that General-Keyes-Straße and with it the arrangement of the buildings runs in an arch and flows through the settlement area of ​​the Glanbach , namely the Altglan.

The residential buildings are being modernized by installing lifts, expanding the attic floors and adding balconies. During the restoration work, the exterior walls of the buildings, which were later painted over, were also painted in the original colors. In total, the complex is to consist of around 450 rental apartments in old and new buildings by 2020.

  • House General-Keyes-Straße 30-32 after the modernization

  • In the settlement during the 2019 construction phase; in the background a newly constructed building

  • Residential building General-Keyes-Strasse 5–7 after the modernization in 2019

Museum apartment

One of the old apartments will be made accessible to the public as a museum apartment in the course of the modernization, in which the bathroom, kitchen, doors, built-in cupboards and lamps from the time of construction can be viewed.

source

Web links

Commons : USFA Housing Development General Keyes-Straße  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The countdown for the sale of the federal apartments is on. In: Wiener Zeitung. December 4, 2003, accessed January 29, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Bures: Tenants want the same special conditions as Baumgartner-Gabitzer. September 17, 2003, accessed on January 29, 2018 (press release).
  3. ↑ Stefanie Ruep: New residential buildings condense Salzburg's "Little America". In: The Standard. November 19, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
  4. ^ Monument protection for the settlement in General-Keyes-Straße. In: Salzburger Nachrichten . February 19, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Personal communication from the GKS property management on March 22, 2019.

Coordinates: 47 ° 48 ′ 56 ″  N , 13 ° 1 ′ 24 ″  E