On the site of former American military barracks on the eastern outskirts of the city, the city of Würzburg is implementing an urban conversion project. It covers an area of 140 ha with the aim of developing a new district (Hubland Nord) for 4,500 residents and an extensive university and research campus.

The State Garden Show 2018 provided the occasion to permanently redesign the central open space – the heart of the new district – as a spacious park. The area, made of a shell limestone plateau, opens up a view of the city skyline and the Marienberg fortress. At the beginning of the 20th century, aviation pioneers found ideal thermal conditions here; aviation dominated the site until the recent past.

The main structure of the park is the “Belt-Walk”, which encloses the entire park like a brace and connects it with the access to Würzburg city centre on the one hand and the green belt surrounding Würzburg on the other. The “Belt-Walk”, a motif from the English landscape garden, opens up the new park along its boundaries, slightly elevated, and guides the visitor along the changing cityscapes and landscapes of the surroundings. A surrounding seating wall delimits the open, elongated meadow space, the ” Lange Wiese/Long Meadow”, which is equally suitable as an informal play space and sunbathing lawn.

The “Belvedere” forms the highest point of the “Belt-Walk” in the east: here it swings up to create a bridge as part of the path and opens up the generous view across the park to the city skyline and Marienberg Fortress. At the same time, as a gateway, it connects with the landscape space to the east of the park. By incorporating the existing “old park” with its valuable old trees and imposing shell limestone walls, a near-natural park with terraced gardens and playgrounds was created in the west of the site. Spacious “city squares” serve as urban entreés, as links to the surrounding residential and scientific quarters.

Project Data

Landscape Architecture: hutterreimann Landschaftsarchitektur

Other designers involved in the design of landscape:
Architecture: SAUERZAPFE ARCHITEKTEN, Berlin
Site management for hutterreimann: Großberger Beyhl Partner, Munich
Planning of perennial plants: Orel+Heidrich Landschaftsarchitekten, Herzogenaurach

Year completed: 2018

Photo credits: © Lichtschwärmer © Marcus Bredt

Manufacturer of urban or play equipment:

Spielewelten (worlds of play), Flora und Fauna des Muschelkalkmeeres (Flora and fauna of the primeval limestone sea):
KuKuk Freiflug GmbH, Stuttgart
Richter Spielgeräte GmbH, Frasdorf

Abheben (take off):

Zimmer.Obst GmbH (Flugzeug)
ESF Emsland Spiel- und Freizeitgeräte GmbH & Co KG, Geeste (Schaukeln, Seilbahnen, Kreisel)
Spiel- und Freiraumobjekte Wichmann, Wandlitz (Trampoline)
Ernst Maier Spielplatzgeräte GmbH, Altenmarkt an der Alz (Tower)
BM Spieldesign GbR, Willstätt / IJslander BV (Calisthenics)
Aktivband Eschenallee:
Polytan GmbH, Burgheim (Soccer)
L. Michow und Sohn (Tischtennis, Liegen)