Source: https://www.witte-projektmanagement.de/en/category/news-en/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 12:19:22+00:00

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Enthusiasm and total dedication, also in sports: nearly 200 people from associated companies and partners in the construction and real estate industries met for what is already the 6th time this year in the small mountain village of Faschina im Großen Walsertal for the “Spreewald-Faschina-WITTE-Connection”. 14 teams had great fun competing under sunny skies for placements in the nostalgia race, 3-hour ski race, parallel slalom and tree trunk nailing. The biggest hit each year however is the tug-of-war. Everyone went all out. WITTE competed with three teams. Our WITTE Racing Team once again brought home the challenge cup (for the 4th time). Congratulations! Thank you to all the organisers, and we are already looking forward to skiing again next year!
Start-up: "Projektlabor – die Immobilien. Flexibel. Macher."
WITTE in cooperation with ANTEON has founded a conceptually and analytically innovative workplace consulting firm: Projektlabor – die Immobilien.Flexibel.Macher. (Project Lab – the Real Estate.Flexible.Makers). In addition to Dirk Schäfer and Jens Reich from ANTEON along with Marco Witte, Max Schlüter was brought on board as a managing director. Previously he worked for seven years as Senior Consultant at the strategic real estate consulting firm pro m². The team is reinforced by Jennifer Backes, who has prior experience in workplace consulting projects with CBRE and combine Consulting.
“Answering the question of cube farm or open-plan office is no longer enough today. Office space needs to support people and provide them with optimal conditions to realise their potential for the company’s benefit,” Schlüter says. “It is about people first, space second.” Through visionary, analytical and proactive change management, the Projektlabor develops new rooms and individualised “agile workplaces” by creating modular, flexible and sustainable working environments. “Thanks to our many years of experience, we understand the objectives of our customers on the one hand and, on the other hand, are able to make recommendations for possible and in part essential changes through a joint, intensive analysis of the needs according to various types of employees, the diversity of working methods, generations and lifestyles, and also reflect these in terms of space,” explains Projektlabor managing director Dirk Schäfer, founding member of Anteon.
With Anteon as the cooperation partner, support at the highest technical level is provided in the search for new office space or rental cost optimisation. Construction expertise is covered through close cooperation with WITTE. Thus the Projektlabor is able to provide companies with consulting services from the user requirements analysis to strategic space planning, controlling the construction or conversion measures and to completion.
Lizette van Zuilen of our partner C2N in the Netherlands has been chosen as “BREEAM Assessor of the Year 2019”. She accepted the prize during a festive gala event in London.
The British BRE presents prizes in various categories at the annual BREEAM Awards. Aside from several sustainable buildings, they are awarded to BREEAM assessors who achieved the highest BREEAM values for their assessments on average in the previous year.
Siemens AG celebrated the topping-out ceremony for module 1 with city representatives and the participating construction firms on what is currently northern Bavaria&apos;s largest construction site. In addition to eight office buildings, it also includes three parking garages and one bicycle garage. Around 7,000 employees will be working here in office space of 100,000 m² starting in mid-2020.WITTE is in charge of controlling for the first campus module. A whole new district is being created on around 54 hectares of total land area south of the city of Erlangen. "The Siemens Campus will be the new Siemens landmark in Erlangen and the region," said Professor Ralf P. Thomas, CFO and member of the Managing Board at Siemens AG, in his speech at the topping-out ceremony.
A premiere was celebrated last week in the new Astor Film Lounge in Hamburg. It marked the opening of the first section in our KPTN project in the HafenCity. The cinema complex with a total of three halls was designed by Berlin interior decorator Anna Maske (Maske & Suhren Berlin). The large hall is a solid structure that can swing freely on steel spring hangers like the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, practically floating twelve centimetres above the ground. Its walls are up to 1.50 metres thick to prevent sound transmission to the other halls and the hotel above the cinema. The small hall with 118 leather seats, also equipped with Dolby Atmos, and the club cinema with 75 seats are acoustically decoupled as well.
Construction site adventure with Straßenkinder e. V.
During the final week of the holidays in October, we invited the kids of Straßenkinder e. V. Berlin to visit the construction site for the “Quartier am Nordbahnhof”. They were equipped with hard hats and safety vests before they got to see how a construction site works, and then had the chance to (co-)pilot an excavator and other equipment. Refuelled by food from the grill, they headed for the climbing park where everyone showed a lot of courage. “Learning more about construction sites was of course very exciting for everyone. The kids also showed courage during the climbing that followed, and were very proud to have overcome their fears. It was definitely a great excursion for our group, boosting the kids’ self-confidence, and we would all like to say thank you for this wonderful invitation,” said Friederike Siggelkow of Straßenkinder e. V. We are pleased to pass those thanks on to ZÜBLIN for their support and excellent preparation of the construction site.
Lights, camera, action! A visit to the Berlin office.
What makes WITTE special? “Time and time again, we successfully put together outstanding teams of qualified employees who do their work with professionalism and great vitality,” says Managing Partner Marco Witte. We wanted to capture that in a short video. That is why we took a proverbial look behind the scenes through the camera, accompanying Senior Project Manager Annette Kwee for a day. See for yourself: Annette Kwee provides a brief overview of day-to-day work at WITTE.
WITTE Projektmanagement invests in C2N, a company based in the Netherlands. In doing so, both project managers have formalised their partnership, which was established in 2009 and raised it to an expanded, strategic level. The corresponding contract was signed this week.
This allows both companies to respond to the needs of their customers and expand their trans-regional market presence. “This investment and the increase in know-how gives us the capacity to strengthen our position in project management beyond the borders of Germany and to support our customers with regional expertise when they enter the Dutch market. In particular those of our customers who operate on an international level are increasingly relying on service providers with local networks in the face of constant globalisation”, explains Marco Witte, Managing Partner of WITTE Projektmanagement. With C2N, WITTE is now complementing its existing investment network of service providers in the real estate sector with its entry into the Dutch market.
“This cooperation not only creates opportunities for new business. With WITTE and its network in five German locations, we can provide new and existing customers with services on a more international basis, more comprehensive consultancy on market conditions, technical guidelines and differences in planning and construction law, as well as successful management of larger-scale projects”, according to Edwin van Eeckhoven, Managing Partner of C2N.
On 25 September 2018, the cornerstone was laid for the Hofweg 94 project in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst. Invited guests included the shareholder families, the Advisory Board, company management and employees of our builder Robert Vogel GmbH und Co. KG, and planning and executing project participants. Bernd Rose and Natalie Jordan from the WITTE branch in Hamburg, who are controlling the project, were mentioned by name in John Patrick Leyba’s speech and praised for their excellent performance and outstanding project support.
56 new residential units – 17 of them low-cost and accessible – are being built along with 40 passenger parking spaces and 120 bicycle rack spaces. The new building will also offer commercial space on the ground floor. This is a subsequent densification project in the courtyard of an existing development from the 1950s. With a length of about 60 metres, the new building slated for completion by the autumn of 2019 was conceived by the Hamburg architect Tim Hupe, who emerged from the urban development competition as the winner with his design.
Numerous parties are involved in the construction process. They all have their own interests. There is potential for conflict, which we want to turn into mutual understanding as early as possible. That is why we as project controllers consider it our responsibility to assume the role of impartial third party. With Kerstin Krämer, Alexander Thieme, Wolf Körner and Andreas Dimke, four WITTE employees successfully completed their mediator training in 2018 Our branches in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin therefore have construction mediators. The goal is to initiate communication processes between the participants, determine their concerns, hopes and interests, and thus establish a basis for cooperative decisions. As project controllers, we cannot officially act as a mediator at the same time since we are not truly impartial due to our assignment. We as project controllers can however have a positive impact on communication within the project team with mediation skills.
We in cooperation with Trinavis organised the 16th Real Estate "Focus" in the villa protected as a historical monument on the Wallotstraße in Berlin. The stylish ambiance fit the topic: good relationships with Berlin style. We learned from Alexander S. Wolf, the expert in this field, how the ancient art of modern networking works in the era of social media and fast communication. What is the right way to network? What are some mistakes to avoid? How do I get others to remember me?
We and our nearly 100 guests learned how networking can not only be truly enjoyable, but also leads to lasting professional relationships and friendships. Refreshing and perfectly summed up.
Gigantic, dark concrete halls, dusty corridors, vacant offices – the old postal building in downtown Düsseldorf is being transformed into the city’s cultural centre by the year 2020. Areas for a much larger, modern central library, theatre, archive and administration are being created for the city of Düsseldorf as the main tenant. A representative lobby will receive visitors and the courtyard is being elaborately restructured. Mayor Thomas Geisel, Director of Cultural Affairs Hans-Georg Lohe, Dirck Smolka, Chairperson of the Administrative Committee for Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Nordrhein (VZN) and Jens Nietner, CEO of HIH Real Estate offered insights into the building during a press tour at the end of May.
Gutting the building is currently underway. Integrated planning calls for sequential and parallel demolition and new construction in various sections of the building. Interior work in the rental areas for the state capital of Düsseldorf will begin in January of 2019. WITTE handles project control.
Hendrik Dusny (39), has worked for WITTE Projektmanagement since October 2007; he has headed up the Berlin office since 2012. Prior to that, he was the head of the ‘Sustainable Building’ department from 2009. Sascha Thran (40) also joined WITTE Projektmanagement in 2007 and became the head of the Hamburg office in 2013.
At the end of February 2018, the project partners Development Partner and DDC/KPE Projektentwicklung celebrated jointly with all project stakeholders the topping-out ceremony for the TWO office building | The Wiesbaden Office on Abraham-Lincoln-Straße 44 in Wiesbaden, Germany. WITTE has been tasked with project controlling by the project corporation. But prior to the topping-out ceremony, a joint effort went into laying the concrete for the last stage.
More than 12,100 square metres and thus around 75 per cent of the rental spaces of the nine-storey office building have already been leased by the time of the completion of the shell construction to Julius Berger International GmbH in Wiesbaden as the primary tenant. Most recently, the Japanese Group Showa Denko leased over 800 square metres of space. Completion is scheduled for mid-2018.
In real estate project financing, a reliable assessment of its risk structure over the entire planning, realisation and marketing phases is the key to success. But investors demand reliable standards and internationally accepted methods in order to be able to analyse the development of the financed risk in a comparative and transparent manner. What are, then, the details of the definition of building construction monitoring?
The Second BCMA Congress will be dedicated entirely to the eight monitoring clusters and to monitoring standards. This way, the concept of the events is clearly being developed further, and there will be a more in-depth specialist focus. The speakers will address organisation, risk management, costs related to construction stages, deadlines, quality, contracts and awards, insurance and marketing. In addition, an overview will be provided on the steps to be taken where training and certification in the field of building construction monitoring are concerned. Stefan Vianden, branch manager of WITTE Düsseldorf, will speak on the topic: “The Monitoring Schedule As An Instrument Of Building Construction Monitoring”.
More information on the Congress and registration.
After a construction period of about two and a half years, Quantum Immobilien AG and Engel & Völkers AG held the topping-out ceremony for their joint new construction project – with project control by WITTE – in Hamburg’s HafenCity on 5 September 2017. “We are well on schedule and confident that the Engel & Völkers headquarters as well as the rental flats will be ready for occupation by the beginning of 2018, and that the freehold flats can be handed over to the owners starting in the second quarter of 2018,” says Philipp Schmitz-Morkramer, founder and CEO of Quantum Immobilien AG.
Aside from the management of Quantum Immobilien AG and Engel & Völkers, the guests at the topping-out ceremony numbering more than 400 also included VIPs and the owners of the exclusive new flats in the “STRANDHAUS by Richard Meier”. Dr. Dorothee Stapelfeldt, Hamburg’s Senator for Urban Development and Living, attended as well and highlighted the special location of the new construction project in the HafenCity during her speech.
“I am very pleased that we were able to win such a renowned architect as Richard Meier for this project. Celebrating the topping-out here today and seeing how our shared ideas and plans are taking form is a very special experience,” says Christian Völkers, founder and CEO of Engel & Völkers AG. With its design, the Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP New York architectural office won the competition against Zaha Hadid Architects Ltd and Foster + Partners. The new construction project is located at the eastern Strandkai on a plot of land about 3,100 square metres in size – in the immediate proximity of the Marco-Polo-Tower – with aboveground gross floor space of about 21,000 square metres. Three main sections make up the building ensemble: the 15-storey residential tower “STRANDHAUS by Richard Meier” with 67 high-end freehold flats, the new Engel & Völkers headquarters and 30 rental flats.
IMMOFINANZ and trivago celebrated on 6 July the topping-out ceremony for the new trivago Campus in Düsseldorf’s Medienhafen, a project controlled by WITTE. Apart from the large number of project stakeholders, the event was also attended by the Managing Director of trivago, Peter Vinnemeier, the CEO of IMMOFINANZ, Oliver Schumy, and Cornelia Zuschke, chief planning officer and temporary stand-in for the Lord Mayor.
“Our new headquarters is a clear commitment to Düsseldorf as the home base of our international team. In view of our growth in the first quarter of 2017, this move is merely the beginning of our story in Düsseldorf’s Medienhafen – and we’re invigorated knowing that there will be a second office building in this location,” says Peter Vinnemeier, Managing Director of trivago.
The impressive six-storey building designed by sop Architekten will include around 26,000 square metres of office space in the first construction phase – enough space for approximately 2,000 trivago employees. Almost the entire building has been arranged as open space offices. It will also feature creatively designed rooms and kitchen areas and offer a variety of activities sponsored by trivago – from bouldering and yoga to football. The second construction phase will see the addition of a 16-storey building right next-door, with an additional surface area of up to around 16,000 square metres.
The first construction phase is expected to be completed in 2018.
The Building Construction Monitoring Association (BCMA), whose founding members include WITTE, has called for uniform national standards in the risk management of project financing. According to the association’s forecast, the costs for project developments in Germany will see a substantial increase if binding rules for rigorous risk controlling are not put in place. These standards are to apply to all financial stakeholders involved in project development. This is the key outcome of the First Building Construction Monitoring Congress, convened in Munich by the association founded in 2016 and attended by around a hundred decision-makers from the financial and real-estate sectors.
“Germany is seriously lagging behind international trends where construction monitoring is concerned. It is now high time that Germany, too, implemented the general standards long since established in other major EU member-states. We can rely on a growing network of institutions and companies in project development and project financing to spread and adopt the standards we have mentioned”, explains Marc Bonner, CEO of BCMA. The BCMA standards on risk monitoring are based on various statutory regulations and association guidelines, such as the minimum requirements for risk management (MaRisk) of Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) or the specifications of the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (IDW).
In addition to the costs for construction monitoring being absorbed by the owner, as is international practice, Jörg Quentin, Managing Director for Real Estate Analysis and Valuation at Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb), called for a binding qualification for construction monitors who should demonstrate many years of practical experience in project management and execution. The goal of the BCMA is to achieve professional accreditation for construction monitors by means of separate training courses.
“According to the construction cost index, development costs for office and commercial properties have increased by 16 per cent since 2010. This increase can be reduced through efficient and generally binding construction monitoring. As for the BCMA, we will take our initiatives for sector-wide standards especially also to regional real-estate networks in the time ahead”, adds Mr Bonner. The next Building Construction Congress will be held in Düsseldorf on 30 November 2017.
On 22 May 2017 IMMOFINANZ and Uniper held, together with project stakeholders and invited guests, including Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel, the topping-out ceremony for the FLOAT office ensemble. In Düsseldorf&apos;s MedienHafen, the new headquarters of the energy company Uniper is currently being built. It is expected to be completed at the end of 2018 and will have a surface area of around 28,000 square metres. It was designed by the star architect Renzo Piano, and Uniper will take up the entire office space.
Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel on the project: "With FLOAT, yet another highlight in MedienHafen is taking shape. I am delighted that the new Uniper head office will fill an existing gap in the urban landscape of the southern part of MedienHafen, and it will be an excellent addition. The architecture of Renzo Piano represents transparency and vibrancy. Restaurants and showrooms on the ground floor will liven up MedienHafen further."
FLOAT is an ensemble consisting of six buildings: the individual structures have a polygonal layout and are linked with each other by a connecting structure in the south, the "Passerelle". The name FLOAT reflects the architectural concept of Renzo Piano, who had visualised ice floes when designing the individual buildings and their interplay.
WITTE is responsible both for FLOAT&apos;s project control and for the second project of IMMOFINANZ in MedienHafen: the first construction phase for the new head office of trivago is under way in immediate proximity, with a rentable surface of around 26,000 square metres.
The Düsseldorf office extended an invitation for WITTE’s “Focus on Real Estate” on 5 May 2017 at the extensively refurbished former US Consulate General at Cecilienallee 5 in the city on the Rhine.
The 1950s building, which was acquired by Deutsche Bestattungsvorsorge Treuhand AG in 2014, had originally been constructed according to the plans of the renowned American architecture firm SOM Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Today it stands as a key witness to German history and, like many prominent buildings of post-war modernism, it is protected. Under the direction of the architecture firm msm meyer schmitz-morkramer, it was refurbished extensively.
Caspar Schmitz-Morkramer, msm meyer schmitz-morkramer, described in his presentation the incredible potential concealed in this magnificent example of 1950s architecture and the excitement experienced in unearthing this treasure. He was followed by Jürgen Einck from DS-Plan, who provided insights into the concept of façade refurbishment in his presentation titled “Facelift or Complete Makeover?”. Preserving the old stock is not always the right approach. For example, after an in-depth analysis of this property, it was decided to reconstruct the characteristic steel-glass façade one-to-one, but to modern-day standards, with the historical natural-stone parapet panelling being re-integrated.
WITTE was there from the beginning, supervising the purchasing process. As part of the preliminary design, the refurbishment variants were coordinated extensively with the office for heritage conservation by way of a feasibility study. “The early collaboration with the office for heritage conservation made it easier for all those involved. This way, it was possible to discuss different variants jointly in an early project phase in order always to identify the best possible solution for the building in economic terms and in terms of heritage conservation”, explains Alexander Thieme, project manager at WITTE Düsseldorf.
More space to play, frolic and learn in: two years after construction began for the new project on the property of the children&apos;s and youth centre BOLLE, followed by the renovation of the old building, the association Straßenkinder e. V. organised the official opening ceremony for the entire building complex on 26 April 2017 in the presence of over 1,000 guests, big and small, and around 80 invited sponsors from society, business and politics. The association, which is 95 per cent funded through private donations, invested a total of around 2.1 million euros.
The association&apos;s chair, Eckhard Baumann, was very pleased with the finished premises and the completion of the construction project: "The new premises and external facilities allow us better to serve the needs of children. It is great to see the large number of social stakeholders who have participated in this project. Each brick donated by the sponsors represents a unique contribution to our commitment to fight child and educational poverty."
Together with HW Ingenieure, WITTE assisted in the new construction and renovation of the old building in the last few years.
From now on, this building complex with a room area of around 1,050 square metres is open to children and youth – which also includes a garden for playing and frolicking around as well as for learning. The diverse spatial concept comprises, among other things, three age-appropriate cafés for children, teenagers and youth, as well as creative and workshop areas, play rooms, various educational rooms and an outfit store, a music room, a dance room, a relaxation room and other functional areas. There are also three new areas for cooking and baking together. The new facilities make it possible to help and support a large number of children.
Cube Real Estate GmbH celebrated the topping-out ceremony of its student residence in Oestrich-Winkel (Hesse) together with all project stakeholders at the first weekend in April. The project, under way since summer 2016, involves 128 student flats on a site of 9,000 square metres directly adjacent to the campus of EBS University. Starting 1 September, 138 students and visiting professors will be able to move in. Cube has invested around EUR 12.5 million in the three-storey property with 3,500 square metres of residential space. The fully-furnished flats range from 21 to 93 square metres in size. The rent, including bills, for 21 square metres is EUR 500.
WITTE is responsible for project control; the general contractor is Köster Bau from Osnabrück.
There was much praise for the light-flooded building at the inspection of the shell construction. The bridge between the two building parts will also be glazed, and grapevines will be planted in front of the house towards the Rhine river, which will be cultivated by a local winegrower.
The Hamburg branch office extended an invitation to the first BauMonitoring Dialogue at the Business Club Hamburg on 30 March 2017 as part of WITTE&apos;s FOCUS on Real Estate. It was a joint event organised with BauMonitoring e.V., of which WITTE is a founding member.
The Hamburg branch office extended an invitation to the first BauMonitoring Dialogue at the Business Club Hamburg on 30 March 2017 as part of WITTE’s FOCUS on Real Estate. It was a joint event organised with BauMonitoring e.V., of which WITTE is a founding member.
Insuring a real estate project properly is an essential component of project risk management – essential to the project owner, the investors and the financing banks. First of all, it is project owners who wish to indemnify themselves against damage. But on closer inspection, it quickly becomes clear that project owners are not the only target group for insurance management. The financing bank, for example, the investor or the buyer of the property will also also demand this. The bank, if it is subject to the German Mortgage Bond Act (Pfandbriefgesetz), is in fact required by law to verify the appropriateness of insurance cover.
The keynote speech by Frank Gottschalk, managing director of BDJ Bau + Projekt Versicherungsmakler GmbH, provided important background information on intelligent and efficient insurance management. This was followed by Martin Hake and Gerrit Fey from R+V Allgemeine Versicherung AG, who gave a practical example of an insurance event.
When investing in commercial and residential project developments, it is important to keep an eye on a large of number of risks in order to ensure that an idea becomes a profitable project. More and more often, project cost calculations are exceeded by far, and lending banks expect more and more from risk analyses. At the first BauMonitoring Congress in Munich, the BCMA Congress, industry members and speakers are invited to exchange on and discuss not only current topics regarding the market and trends of project development financing in Europe, but also the growing demands on monitoring and the development of digital risk monitoring.
On 2 March, the Feuring Group celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the new Hyatt Place Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt Gateway Gardens together with Union Investments, all project stakeholders and representatives from the city. The first hotel of this brand in Germany is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2018. The distinctive new hotel construction is situated at one of the most important intersections within Gateway Gardens. With a surface area of around 19,000 square metres, the hotel will boast 312 rooms, around 110 underground parking spaces and two shops. The suburban railway station Gateway Gardens, which is already under construction, will be able to be accessed directly in front of the hotel.
Back in March 2016 Union Investment closed a purchase agreement with the Feuring Group in order to acquire the hotel for the open-ended public property fund ‘UniImmo: Global’ upon its completion. WITTE acted as a consultant for Union Investment during the purchasing process through technical due diligence and handled project controlling. The Feuring Group will operate the hotel under the brand of Hyatt Place for the next 30 years as a lessee.
Gateway Gardens, with a projected gross floor space of 700,000 square metres on a site of 35 hectares, is one of the biggest district developments in an airport city in Europe.
On 10 March 2017, the Verband der Bau- und Immobilienmediatoren e.V is hosting its 4th convention on the topic of “Conflict Management in the Construction and Real Estate Industry”. Together with Dr Andreas May of May und Partner Rechtsanwälte Mediatoren mbB, Marco Witte as the Managing Partner of WITTE Projektmanagement will speak about “Conflict management in the course of a project as a quality characteristic of a modern project organisation”.
Since the planning and construction process is to a large extent a communication process today and the number of project participants, interfaces and various interests is steadily increasing, WITTE as a project controller sees tremendous optimisation potential here. Realising projects quickly, precisely and in high quality today requires optimised processes, fair treatment and transparent action. Incorporating preventive mediation can make a positive contribution here.
What causes conflicts on the construction site? What project phase harbours the greatest potential for conflict? How can I identify potential or existing conflicts at an early stage? How can accompanying mediation help, and how is it integrated into the planning/construction process?
More information about the convention.
Berliner Volksbank&apos;s new representative office in the heart of Potsdam at Yorckstraße/Friedrich-Ebert-Straße was completed on schedule in mid-October. WITTE handled project control up to the acceptance of the general contractor services and the final acceptance by the building inspectorate and now supervises the further tenant improvements and certification under the DGNB Gold standard until staff have moved in. In August 2015, after technically demanding foundation work, the project was officially launched for this five-storey building with a total gross floor space of 2,500 square metres. The 49 employees of Berliner Volksbank in Potsdam, who have thus far worked at three different locations, will move into the first and second upper floors as well as the rooftop floor. The third upper floor has been leased externally.
"With planning-to-construction supervision and a tight schedule, dynamic project control was vital, that is, one must be able to respond flexibly to new requirements at all times. This requires very precise coordination of all stakeholders, fast decision making and precise time management," explains Tonio Davideit, WITTE project manager. "We are pleased with the timely completion of the project, the good collaboration with the architects of Axthelm Rolvien and the general contractor Gustav Epple, as well as many regional firms." Berliner Volksbank insisted on awarding most of the contracts to local companies.
Jaguar Land Rover laid the foundation for its new car dealership at Drygalski-Allee 37 in Munich on 28 October 2016. Being the world&apos;s first "Global Statement Site", the building&apos;s modern, exclusive and architectural design will reflect Jaguar Land Rover&apos;s brand experience on a total surface area of around 20,000 square metres.
WITTE Projektmanagement has provided intensive support and technical consulting for the project since 2012. During the development and planning phases, the company handled project control and, as part of it, now supervises the further construction for Jaguar Land Rover. "A tight time and cost frame with very demanding quality requirements necessitates highly intense project activity, very short planning periods and intensive coordination processes – across national borders," explains Frank Brühmann, WITTE&apos;s Munich branch manager.
The planned car dealership in its new, spacious and glazed corporate design of Jaguar Land Rover with two storeys and an event area on the roof will feature a showroom of around 10,000 square metres, a workshop area of around 2,000 square metres and ample parking. The architectural design was created by the British firm Principle; planning realisation was done in Germany, by the firm Hamacher, Daub & Partner, Cologne.
OVG Real Estate GmbH and LBBW Immobilien celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the M_Eins office building at the end of September, which is currently in development in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. As early as spring of next year, the joint venture partners want to hand over the finished building, controlled by WITTE, to the future tenant Zalando.
Based on plans by KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten, a seven-storey office building with around 13,000 square metres of office space, a rooftop terrace and 55 underground parking spaces is being built, until early 2017, in the middle of one of the largest inner-city development areas of Berlin and in direct vicinity to the Mercedes-Benz Arena on the property Mühlenstraße 25. The energy-optimised building is a visual attraction thanks to its elaborate brick façade with all-around large-scale glazing. Certification according to DGNB Gold is planned.
The property has already been leased in full to Zalando SE, Europe’s biggest online supplier of shoes and fashion.
IMMOFINANZ is currently developing the new trivago headquarters in Düsseldorf&apos;s Medienhafen district. The cornerstone for the modern campus was laid at the beginning of September in the presence of Mayor Thomas Geisel and trivago founder and CTO Peter Vinnemeier. The rounded, six-storey building will have approx. 26,000 m² of office space in the first building phase, which has been leased in full over the long term to trivago. It is scheduled to be completed in mid-2018.
The new corporate head office will have space for around 2,000 employees. It was designed by Slapa Oberholz Pszczulny. The offices have green interior courtyards, numerous balconies and rooftop terraces. Ninety-nine per cent of them have been designed as open space offices. Green exterior facilities, fitness and recreational spaces, a cinema and a jogging path on the rooftop terrace add an inspiring, health-promoting environment to the work spaces.
"For us, the trivago head office is a project that points the way. It does not merely live up to the requirements of the latest generation of offices. What mattered to us was that trivago&apos;s innovative corporate philosophy be reflected in the architecture and office spaces. A campus is being created where employees can feel well all around," said Oliver Shumy, CEO of IMMOFINANZ, during the cornerstone laying.
WITTE controls the EU 200-million project. A time-consuming tendering process was omitted in light of the short planning and implementation phases. Instead, the construction team partner procedure was chosen: the general contractor is selected in a targeted manner as part of a prequalification procedure, and the project stakeholders all sit at the same table from the very start – from the client and project controller, architects and general contractor to expert planners. The general contractor for the turnkey completion of the first building phase is Ed. Züblin AG.
WITTE Projektmanagement is one of the first members of the newly founded BauMonitoring e.V. association. The objective of this interdisciplinary network is to develop uniform market standards on the basis of existing laws, norms and guidelines, thus creating a foundation for high quality construction monitoring.
These standards and quality requirements are intended, on the one hand, to facilitate the initiation and development of projects and, on the other, to establish trust through clear and transparent rules. All this is based on established project management principles and extensive know-how in all disciplines.
WITTE Projektmanagement, as a member of the association, wants to promote and help to shape the knowledge transfer of all project stakeholders. The main focus is on high-quality training and professional development in qualitative and quantitative analysis as well as on transparency in the representation of risk assessment and comparability of service portfolios.
On 7 June 2016, about 300 building days after breaking ground, the first stone of KPTN was placed in the building pit, which measures 6,400 square metres and is eight metres deep. On the occasion, DC Developments celebrated the official start of the construction phase with 200 guests and future tenants.
This complex represents the implementation of an inner-city mixed-use concept in the HafenCity: KPTN is creating space for a mix of urban living, a hotel and cinema, restaurants and retail in a central location that combines private retreats with retail and recreational options under one roof. The construction project, with an investment sum of 120 million euros, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017. It is to be a living piece of the city for Hamburg locals and tourists alike.
WITTE is controlling the building project. "At first, the building pit was a major design and technical challenge for everyone involved, because this used to be the site of a harbour basin that was subsequently filled in. Now that the complex excavation work of over 40,000 cubic metres is done, it&apos;s full steam ahead on construction," says Marco Ossmann, the project manager responsible from WITTE in Hamburg.
In addition to the project developers, the demanding concept and design is being implemented by two architecture firms: the commercial complex is the responsibility of Nalbach + Nalbach Gesellschaft von Architekten mbH from Berlin; the residential part is being developed by the Hamburg-based blauraum architekten Planungsgesellschaft mbH.
12th 18-hour go-kart race "Hot Asphalt"
On 4 and 5 June, our traditional 18-hour go-kart race "Hot Asphalt" was launched for the 12th time in Waldow, Brandenburg. A total of 23 teams with around 300 drivers from the construction and real estate sector raced to position themselves along the Spreewaldring in summer weather.
WITTE went into the race with three teams: the WITTE Ladykracher, an all women&apos;s team, finished in an excellent and well-deserved third place after 18 hours and 1,533 laps. Everything just fell into place this year: strategy, kart, the team, the mood of the team – and of course the fighting spirit. With 1,530 laps, the WITTE Racing Team was in reach of a spot on the podium until shortly before the end of the race. But eventually, they only came in seventh. The WITTE Flying Fun Team, with around 1,500 laps, were 19th. The number of laps completed by the WITTE teams shows how narrow the field was this year.
The race was won by the E-arth Drivers (Eggers Tiefbau GmbH), with the Giracer, the winners of the previous year&apos;s race, coming in second. After 18 hours of racing, the two teams were only 10 seconds apart!
Overall, it was an exciting, fair and, above all, high-class race. Teams were in perfect harmony with each other, both on and off the track. Congratulations to all participants.
Since the start of the race in 2005, all teams combined have logged a total of 258,899 km on the Spreewaldring. This is the equivalent of 6.5 trips around the world.
The next race is scheduled for 17 and 18 June 2017.
On 9 March 2016, Berliner Volksbank held its topping-out ceremony in the heart of Potsdam for its new representative office at Yorckstraße/Friedrich-Ebert-Straße. Around a hundred guests were invited. The new construction began with the laying of the cornerstone on 14 August 2015. The construction work is progressing as scheduled. Completion is scheduled for autumn 2016. WITTE has been hired to handle project control.
On 9 March 2016, Berliner Volksbank held its topping-out ceremony in the heart of Potsdam for its new representative office at Yorckstraße/Friedrich-Ebert-Straße. Around a hundred guests were invited. The new construction began with the laying of the cornerstone on 14 August 2015. The construction work is progressing as scheduled. Completion is scheduled for autumn 2016.
The five-storey building with an effective area of around 1,600 square metres will be home to about 40 employees of Berliner Volksbank in Potsdam, who have thus far worked at three different locations.
The new representative office of Berliner Volksbank now stands where Frederick the Great once started the revolution of the postal service with the construction of the Old Post Office, and where in 2009 the prefabricated high-rise known as the House of Travels was demolished. The historical-looking façade of the building, based on designs by the Potsdam-based architecture firm Axthelm Rolvien, is reminiscent of the Old Post Office, but "its interior will surprise with a new look and modern service," said Dr. Holger Hatje, Chairman of the Board of the cooperative bank, at the laying of the cornerstone.
WITTE was responsible for project control.
On 11 February 2016 in the presence of Cornelia Yzer, Senator for Economics, Technology and Research, Coen van Oostrom, CEO and founder of OVG Real Estate, Michael Nagel, chairman of the Board of LBBW Immobilien Management GmbH, and Dr. Jan Kemper, SVP Finance Zalando SE, the cornerstone was officially laid for the M_Eins office building, which is currently being built in Berlin&apos;s district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
WITTE had assumed project control for the building in the previous year.
As early as spring of next year, the joint venture partners OVG Real Estate GmbH and LBBW Immobilien want to hand over the finished building to the future tenant Zalando.
Based on plans by KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten, a seven-storey building with around 13,000 square metres of office space, a rooftop terrace and 55 underground parking spaces is being built. The energy-optimised building is a visual attraction thanks to its elaborate brick façade with all-around large-scale glazing. Certification according to DGNB Gold is planned.
As Senator Cornelia Yzer emphasised, "The laying of the cornerstone for the M_Eins office building also sends a highly visible signal for the economic reinvigoration of Berlin. This area had long been left empty, but now, with successful Berlin-based start-ups and a powerful construction industry, a new urban picture is emerging in many places, representing the development of the capital&apos;s economic present and future."
On the premises of Rohde & Schwarz in Munich&apos;s Werksviertel around the Ostbahnhof railway station, a second new technology centre is being built, for which WITTE is handling project control. Eight months after breaking ground, the topping-out ceremony was celebrated at the end of January. Around 200 guests participated in the festivities. Josef Schmid, mayor of the state capital Munich, was present too.
Rohde & Schwarz is investing around 35 million euros into its Technology Centre II, which replaces old building stock demolished in early 2015. Rohde & Schwarz is the largest employer and second largest property owner in the so-called Werksviertel, as well as one of the key players in the development of the whole area behind the Ostbahnhof railway station.
With its new construction, Rohde & Schwarz is also actively supporting the &apos;Werksviertel&apos; urban development project. This will be the site of an independent urban quarter with new space for jobs and housing, as well as a lot of green space. The first technology centre was built in 2005. This was followed by an office complex, including cafeteria, café and car park, in 2012. Further projects are planned in the Werksviertel as part of the urban redesign project, such as the local shopping and service centre PLAZA with retail, offices, hotels and recreational facilities, which is scheduled to be constructed in early 2017. WITTE will also handle project control in this case.
It is not only for major projects that reports of exploding costs tend to be the rule rather than the exception, especially when it comes to public building projects.A lot of money and energy are wasted unnecessarily across a range of projects of varying size, and budget and construction timetable overshoots are discussed openly much too rarely. But communication is a vital building block, because the different work phases are carried out by different people.
What tools are available to ensure a project&apos;s success?Experts will discuss this at the HEUER Expert Dialogue &apos;Process and Cost Management&apos; on 25 November 2015 in Düsseldorf. &apos;Taking the helm tightly&apos;.One of the speakers is Marco Witte. His presentation &apos;Technical systems vs. the human factor&apos; addresses such issues as how programmes can control processes and support communication.
Article by Marco Witte &apos;Communication among equals right from the start&apos;.
The programme is available for download.
BECKEN Development GmbH, Hamburg, today celebrates the timely completion of shell construction of the &apos;Bertha Berlin&apos; office complex with all those involved in the construction project. The nine-storey office building with approx. 17,000 m² of rental space in the Lehrter quarter south of Europacity and opposite the Chancellery will be ready to be moved into by mid-2016. The project is a joint venture of Becken Development GmbH and HanseMerkur-Versicherungen.
WITTE Projektmanagement was responsible for project control during the design and planning phase as well as for tendering and contract-awarding. It also took on construction controlling for the superstructure and MEP services after the contract had been awarded to the general contractor W. MARKGRAF GmbH & Co. KG. After the topping-out ceremony, the already-begun development and the work on the façade and MEP will be continued. "The main focus will be on continuing to implement future user requirements, in both economic and ecological terms, in accordance with the DGNB Gold standard in the development of this property," says Wolf Körner, project manager at WITTE Projektmanagement.
The German-American architecture firm Barkow Leibinger designed the building, which fits harmoniously into its neighbourhood, despite its independent character. Large window façades for the offices and the all-around rooftop terrace open up an unobstructed view of the Chancellery and the Spree river – while the restaurant&apos;s outdoor facilities on the ground floor face the tranquil ULAP Park neighbouring it.
To work out the importance of social commitment on the part of the German real estate sector, Bilfinger Real Estate and Initiative Corporate Governance (ICG) have created an initiative called &apos;We show responsibility&apos;. WITTE participated in the CSR survey through its social commitment to the Straßenkinder e.V. association. The results were presented at the Expo Real 2015.
Read more about the current social commitment in the German real estate sector here: examples of best practices can be downloaded here (WP p. 80/81).
More than anything, it was an event for the BOLLE kids: on Friday, the Straßenkinder e. V. association celebrated the topping-out ceremony for the extension together with everyone involved in the project, supporters and, of course, all the children.
Eckehard Baumann, chairman of Straßenkinder e. V., was pleased and gave his thanks: "A topping-out ceremony is a beautiful tradition. It is above all a celebration of the builders, but today is mainly a celebration for all the children we look after. Having an additional 660 square metres means that there will be more space for romping around, learning, working off excess energy and also, quite simply, being a child." The official opening in the spring of 2016 is now eagerly anticipated.
WP Magazin 2015/2016 issued on the occasion of Expo Real 2015: Here you can read current WITTE news and learn about our client&apos;s exciting projects. We also discuss with experts the complexity of MEP and the challenge posed by special request management in residential construction.After all: these days it is not only the technical requirements for construction projects that are becoming ever more complex, but also the individual segments that demand technical expertise as well as an ever increasing degree of coordination and communication. But it is only by working together that we can meet many of the new challenges – in consultation with all project stakeholders.
Frank Ch. Holtmann, managing director and branch manager for Düsseldorf, and Hendrik Dusny, branch manager for Berlin, will speak about &apos;Project controlling in construction&apos; in Frankfurt am Main on 3 and 4 November 2015, and in Munich on 9 and 10 March 2016. The workshop will be rounded off by a presentation from legal expert Katharina Feddersen of Osborne Clarke. The event has been initiated by Management Forum Starnberg. The seminar is intended for owners, investors, project stakeholders and owner representatives.
The WITTE experts will speak about the theory behind the tasks and objectives of project control and project management. Real-life examples will show what good project control can and must achieve. The first seminar was held in Munich in July.
The laying of the cornerstone on 14 August 2015 marked the start of the new construction of Berliner Volksbank in Potsdam at Yorckstraße/Friedrich-Ebert-Straße. The historical-looking façade of the building, designed by the Potsdam-based architecture firm Axthelm Rolvien, will be reminiscent of the Old Post Office. But its interior will surprise with its new look and modern service.
This new construction will fill an empty lot that has existed for many years in the heart of Potsdam. The new representative office of the bank will now be built where Frederick the Great once started the revolution of the postal service with the construction of the Old Post Office, and where in 2009 the prefabricated high-rise known as the House of Travels was demolished. The cornerstone was laid in the presence of Mayor Jann Jakobs.
The five-storey building will provide 1,600 square metres of space, 1,270 m² of which the bank will use for its own purposes. The third floor is to be leased. It is scheduled to be ready for occupancy in October 2016.
WITTE Projektmanagement has agreed to handle project control for the new construction.
Photo: Jann Jakobs, mayor of Potsdam, added a current newspaper to the cornerstone time capsule, Dr. Holger Hatje, chairman of the Board of Berliner Volksbank, added a set of coins and the press folder, and Henner Rolvien, the executing architect, added the construction documents.
Together with Olaf Cunitz, mayor of the City of Frankfurt/Main and Head of Planning and Building, and Horst Schneider, mayor of the city of Offenbach, Burkhard Wagner, from the Mercedes-Benz Rhein-Main Sales Division for Passenger Cars, laid the official cornerstone on 13 July 2015 for the new construction of the Mercedes-Benz Rhein-Main branch for new and used vehicles. WITTE is responsible for project control.The two branches of Frankfurt and Offenbach will be merged on an area of 52,000 m².
The three-storey building with a large glass façade was designed by ATP, an architecture firm from Offenbach. Apart from showcasing new and used vehicles, Daimler will also set up a new garage at the new location.
From the left: Olaf Cunitz, mayor of the City of Frankfurt/Main, Head of Planning and Building, Burkhard Wagner, Mercedes-Benz Rhein-Main Sales Division for Passenger Cars, Horst Schneider, mayor of the city of Offenbach.
For the fifth time, the EUREB Institute handed out the Real Estate Brand Award for Germany&apos;s strongest real estate brands. In the segment &apos;Project Controller Germany&apos;, WITTE earned a respectable second place, which marked an improvement from 2013.
With this award, the EUREB Institute recognises companies that have developed a strong brand. In a representative survey this year, around 16,500 industry experts were asked questions about the top 500 commercial brands of Germany and Austria. Divided into ten industry segments, brand strength and brand potential were determined. According to the CEO of the EUREB Institute, Harald Steiner, the data shows that brand awareness is on the rise in the real estate sector. He says that a growing number of companies have come to understand that having a clear image helps their business. This is further borne out by the fact, according to the CEO, that the top-ranked candidates were neck and neck in every second segment.
Further information on the analysis.
For over 14 years, Straßenkinder e.V. has been helping young people to get off the streets and reintegrate into society. But there was not enough space anymore for children to play and learn and to look after them properly. They needed a new building. This was possible only through active support. WITTE handled project control services, for example, and also advises the association on implementation issues. The building pit was excavated this May, and the concrete for the base plate was poured in June. The extension is scheduled to be completed in early 2016.
The BOLLE team and all children are observing the construction work with great interest. They were previously thoroughly instructed and are regularly alerted about building site risks.
11th 18-hour kart race "Hot Asphalt"
WITTE acts with sportsmanship in business and team environments, implementing projects in a dynamic manner. And this attitude is being cultivated: on 6 and 7 June, our traditional 18-hour kart race "Hot Asphalt" was launched for the 11th time in Waldow, Brandenburg. A total of 21 teams from the construction and real estate sector competed and raced to position themselves along the Spreewaldring. But the road was not all that was hot: the temperature on Saturday was around 35 degrees.
Three teams were at the starting line for WITTE: after 18 hours, the WITTE Racing Team came in an excellent second. The team was joined on the podium by the Giracers in first place and the G1 Racing Team in third place. The WITTE Ladykracher, an all women&apos;s team, achieved a respectable eighth place, and the WITTE Flying Fun Team improved on its previous year&apos;s placement, 19th, coming in 13th this time.
Overall, it was an exciting and high-class race. The average speed of the 9hp karts was 69.57 km/h. A total of 31,100 laps were completed.
Congratulations to all participants. We will meet again next year on 4 and 5 June 2016.
In the Munich district of &apos;Werksviertel&apos; at the Ostbahnhof railway station, an additional technology centre is being created for the electronics group Rohde & Schwarz on behalf of R&S Terra II GmbH & Co. KG. After demolishing the old building stock, construction is now starting on a modern research and development building with underground parking. The Rohde & Schwarz group is investing around EUR 29 million in the realisation of the project. The new construction with a total of 19,133 square metres (gross floor space), of which 14,993 square metres are above ground, is expected to be completed in early 2017. WITTE Projektmanagement GmbH is controlling the building project.
Based on the draft of the Düsseldorf-based architecture firm RKW Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky and under the coordination of Lars Klatte, a new six-storey building with an interesting lamellar cladding on the facade and a strip of greenery that extends from the ground to the roof is being constructed. The shell construction work, contracted to the company Riedel Bau, began at the end of May.
The factory site at Mühldorfstraße 20 is part of the approx. 40-hectare area covered by a binding land-use plan and is being developed gradually into an innovative area for office and commercial properties. "The new Rohde & Schwarz building complex with administrative, research and development areas will live up to the requirements of a modern working environment thanks to its design, which incorporates very open spatial structures, for example, creating a pleasant urban atmosphere. Plus, modern technical standards are being employed for the development area and the workstations," explains Kerstin Krämer, project manager in charge at WITTE Projektmanagement. "The primary focus is now on coordinating the superstructure construction phase with the complex technical equipment for research and development in a precise and speedy manner."
The Hamburg office moved into its new premises in HafenCity at the end of May. The new offices are located at Coffee Plaza, Am Sandtorpark 2, D-20457 Hamburg. With its group of companies, ECG (Engineer Corporation Group GbR), WITTE Projektmanagement GmbH occupies around 770 square metres. ECG includes the affiliated companies HW-Ingenieure GmbH, gpc gesellschaft für gebäudetechnisches projektcontrolling mbH, corpo two Management GmbH and GKK Ingenieurgesellschaft für Hochbau mbH.
On 8 May 2015, the cornerstone for the expansion of the Hilton Munich Airport Hotel was officially laid. Investor and owner is FMG Flughafen München GmbH.
The former Kempinski Hotel (1994-2014) has been managed by the Hilton Group since early 2015. With a gross floor space of approx. 9,000 m² on seven floors, the total capacity of the hotel will be increased by 162 to 550 rooms. The expansion will be built northeast of the existing structure, between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, and connected to the existing hotel via passages on two levels. At the same time, the existing office space on level 04, the lobby level, is to be converted to a conference facility of approx. 1,200 m².
WITTE is responsible for project control.
Like the existing part of the hotel, the building has been designed by Murphy Jahn Architects, Chicago. The general planner is Kofler Energies, Frankfurt/Main. Construction started in March 2015, and completion is scheduled for the end of 2016.
Focus on real estate: "How ready is Berlin for residential towers?"
Anonymous and dirty – residential high-rises do not have a good reputation in Germany. But property developers expect a comeback, and are developing more and more residential towers with even more in the pipeline. In Berlin, too: at Alexanderplatz square, on the banks of the Spree river, in City-West or in Steglitz. And at Bahnhof Zoo, a tower more than 200 metres tall is to be built. Some are sceptical, some confused, while others are impressed. But how ready is Berlin for residential towers? How much sense do they make from a technical, financial, social and urban-development point of view?
This is what we will discuss at the 13th &apos;WITTE Focus on Real Estate&apos; in Berlin on 21.05.2015: Prof. Christoph Langhof, architect, Christoph Reschke of HINES Immobilien GmbH, Thomas Groth of Groth Group, Dipl.-Ing. Gottfried Kupsch of AG City e. V., Dirk Moritz of Moritz Gruppe GmbH and Marco Witte of WITTE Projektmanagement GmbH.
The &apos;Focus on Real Estate&apos; is an event series started by WITTE Projektmanagement in 2011. Here, project developers, investors, architects and engineers meet in Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich for a cross-sectoral exchange on a regular basis. Current topics from the construction and real estate sectors always take centre-stage at these events.
It is also called the Oscars of real estate. Just being nominated for the MIPIM award is tantamount to a knighthood, similar to the Oscars for films.
There were 40 finalists in the race and 11 have won. One of the coveted real-estate Oscars, presented at the real-estate fair in Cannes each year, was this year again awarded to Düsseldorf – the Dreischeibenhaus won in the category &apos;Best Refurbishment&apos;.
The finalists this year were not only more international, but also more sustainable, more green. The Dreischeibenhaus fits this description to a T. In its category, the competitors included the Aldwych Quarter in London and the King Fahad National Library in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
WITTE was responsible for project control, quality construction supervision, TAI, tenant improvements and supervised the LEED certification.The winners were announced on 12 March 2015.
Düsseldorf&apos;s Mayor Thomas Geisel, chief planning officer Dr. Gregor Bonin and Bernard Plattner from Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Dr. Eduard Zehetner, CEO of IMMOFINANZ Group, and Dr. Oliver Schumy, member of the board, broke symbolic ground on 6 March 2015 for the new FLOAT office building at the entrance to Düsseldorf&apos;s Medienhafen. The project, developed and to be realised by the Austrian IMMOFINANZ Group, is scheduled for completion in 2018. The building complex has been designed by star architect Renzo Piano. WITTE Projektmanagement is handling project control.
FLOAT consists of a total of six building segments with a total rental space of approx. 30,700 square metres, forming one complex that allows for flexible use. There will also be around 780 parking spaces in a three-level underground car park. In terms of urban development, a central gap in the southern section of Düsseldorf&apos;s Medienhafen between Franziusstraße and Holzstraße will be filled. With this project, architect Renzo Piano is creating a visual highlight that fuses with the architecture of Düsseldorf&apos;s harbour, while still leaving a significant imprint. The project will be implemented in cooperation with BM+P Architekten, Düsseldorf.
DGNB Gold certification is planned.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the new construction Bertha Berlin in the Lehrter quarter took place on 4 December 2014. In terms of urban development, this closes a central gap around the largely freestanding railway station. WITTE Projektmanagement GmbH was responsible for project controlling during the draft and planning phases as well as for tendering and contract awarding. The contractor BECKEN Development GmbH is constructing the superstructure of the flexible multi-tenant building in close proximity to Berlin&apos;s main railway station. In addition, WITTE is also responsible for construction controlling of the superstructure and MEP building services. "As scheduled, we handed over the building pit to the assigned general contractor, W. MARKGRAF GmbH & Co KG, in stages in October to keep the processes as smooth as possible," explains Manolito Conte, project manager of WITTE Projektmanagement GmbH. The new construction Bertha Berlin is to become operational in 2016. This multi-tenant project has been awarded the DGNB pre-certificate in Silver.
In the Strandkai area, alongside the new building under construction as the future head office of Engel & Völkers, a high-rise with approx. 66 freehold flats and a building with 30 rent-controlled flats are being built, with further retail space in both buildings. With this, Pritzker prize winner Richard Meier is leaving an additional architectural imprint on Hamburg’s HafenCity.
Up to 2,500 children and youth end up on the streets in Germany each year. There may be as many as several hundred in Berlin, depending on the time of year. For over 14 years, Straßenkinder e.V. has been helping young people to get off the streets and reintegrate into society. In 2015, WITTE Projektmanagement is also continuing its commitment to this association, started last year.
The team at Straßenkinder e.V. have helped many children and youth since opening the children and youth shelter BOLLE in Berlin-Marzahn almost five years ago. But the current location no longer has enough space to look after up to a hundred children and youth aged 5 to 18 every day. The association needs more space to continue offering a variety of recreational and educational activities to actively combat child poverty and educational disadvantages. Since this requires solid assistance, WITTE Projektmanagement is acting as a consultant for the Straßenkinder e.V. association on the realisation of the extension and is supporting it with project control services.
Eckhard Baumann, chairman of Straßenkinder e.V.: “Our work is almost entirely funded through donations. As such, we are grateful to supporters and sponsors who help us to do our work. We are very happy to have WITTE Projektmanagement by our side during this construction project. Each donation offers great help to us, going a long way towards us being able to help children in future.” The extension of around 660 square metres will provide more space for the children. The new spatial concept includes large areas for education, computer rooms, a workshop and creative work, as well as space for music and dance and a large play room where children can expend excess energy and simply ‘be children’.
“As a company domiciled in Berlin, we are happy to do our share as part of the economy and society and take responsibility for the social and cultural life of the city. What we especially like about the Straßenkinder e. V. association is the fact that it helps children from a disadvantaged social background, giving them a chance to develop their potential in a variety of ways.” The building permit application for the extension has been approved. Detailed construction planning and preparatory measures are currently under way. The extension is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2016.
The anniversary magazine celebrating 20 years of WITTE: Gain new insights into the development of our company – how it all began, how we have grown with the real estate sector, what has changed, what our clients say about us, and how we see the future.
Download the anniversary magazine celebrating 20 years of WITTE as a PDF here.

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