Restoration works on the wing buildings of the Grossmarkthalle

Alongside the foundation works in the Grossmarkthalle, work is under way to restore the external facades of the wing buildings. Since spring 2010 the brick facade of the eastern wing building has been being repaired. This has involved removing the mortar from all the joints and replacing it. The joint profile of the brick facade constitutes one of the Grossmarkthalle’s special features: according to the design of Martin Elsaesser, who was Director of Town Planning for the City of Frankfurt am Main at the time, the width of the transversal joints was to be considerably wider than that of the vertical settlement joints, i.e. two and a half centimetres compared with only one centimetre. The idea was to accentuate the horizontality of the brick courses. This artistic accentuation of the horizontality was further underlined through the colouring of the joints, with the horizontal joints being filled with a pale mortar and the vertical settlement joints with a dark mortar. The aim of the careful restoration of the joints is to replicate this original feature of the facade.

With regard to the interior of the eastern wing building, which used to house cold storage rooms, the restoration works on the ribbed concrete floor were completed by winter 2010. The steel of the reinforced concrete floor was partly uncovered, cleaned and coated with a new protective coating. Subsequently, a new layer of sprayed concrete was applied to the floor structures. This special design will also be evident in the ceilings of the future office spaces.

In the western wing building, one of the few remaining paternosters in Frankfurt is to be carefully restored. This glass-windowed lift is located in the distinctive projection on the north side of the building. In June 2010, 16 of the paternoster’s compartments were removed so that the iron, wooden and glass surfaces could be renovated. Thyssen Krupp Aufzüge Deutschland GmbH, the elevator company that was awarded the contract for the renovation of the paternoster, has been renewing the lift’s technical components.

In spring this year renovation works were launched on the facade and interior of the western wing building. All these works have been approved by the historic preservation authorities.