Good News for Hannover!

I was reading today that Dutch architectural firm Maxwan won the international design competition to transform the Marstall Platz parking lot along the Leine river in Hannover to a space for living, retail, ice skating, and more as part of the HannoverCity2020+ redesign project (the city is getting a face lift!). "What is now a parking lot will in the future be transformed into an multifunctional square smartly defined by the careful placement of two new buildings at both ends of the square." You can see their concept below and more renderings here.



“Maxwan and LOLA from Rotterdam won competition for Marstall because of the design of the public square and the convincing integration of the building volumes and  spatial relations within the existing urban tissue. […] The project thereby makes a significant contribution to the inner city development of the coming 10 to 15 years.”

I love that it mentions they will have an ice skating rink with skate rentals in the winder - this is wonderful news! I have been telling Thorsten for a few years that I wish they had arranged to have an ice rink in the winter and an outdoor roller skating rink in the summer in Raschplatz, another area in Hannover currently being developed though, sadly, it isn't that exciting to see because they've included no trees or benches or anything green so it's still gray and ugly. Hopefully Marstall will be a better project and freshen up Hannover a bit because the downtown area needs a facelift! I cannot wait until Kroepke is finished (another project currently underway -- I hope they landscape it though adding trees and benches - WE NEED MORE GREEN DOWNTOWN!



Now I'm hoping Hannover will renovate Steintor. It is a place where my favorite fabric market is held and some other nice markets too, like the French market, but it is SO UGLY over there - always smelling like urine and so depressing. They need to make Steintor pretty with green space and some interesting shops and maybe even a nice flower shop like the one shown in the above photo in New York City's Bryant Park... Like that. And add some cute cafes and let young people have HANDMADE MARKETS there like the Renegade markets in the states or the South End Open Market in Boston that Chris runs. I wish I could be on the Hannover City Planning board, I could give them so many ideas - my father was a civil engineering manager and worked on planning boards all of the time, I remember he always had ideas and worked on so many great initiatives and now here I am always dreaming up a better Hannover. I just wish someone would listen to my ideas - as an American, an outsider, who has been visiting Hannover since 1999 and who currently lives here I know I have a lot of valuable things to share.

Well on a positive note, I just found out today that TKMaxx, which is called TJMaxx in America, will come to Hannover to occupy 3 floors in the former Karstadt building and Zero will be in there as well, though we don't need another Zero, and Claire's accessories will be in Hannover too, an American retailer for accessories, but we already have two Accessorize stores from London that recently opened and a ton of other accessories stores so I'm not sure what purpose Claire's will serve. I vote we open a big HEMA store downtown -- this Dutch department store has a few locations in Germany and they are looking to expand and Hannover would be perfect. I actually wrote to HEMA addressing their corporate communications department. Ha! Well, the ball has to start rolling from some point and SO many of my Hannover friends want a HEMA here. Another great store for Hannover would be Zara Home and Habitat. Habitat would be perfect, we need more options here for younger people to shop with style outside of IKEA.

Oh... I almost forgot to mention. There is a new cafe built on the Leine river in the Alstadt, have you seen it? It's quite nice and trendy! Also, if you are looking for a great place to eat try bio cafe 11A in Linden, my friends took me there and it's great. Not big on atmosphere but the food is amazing and very fresh. Also, if you are a Jo Malone fan, Liebe now has a Jo Malone counter in their store with candles, perfumes, shower gels and more. They have the best candles! It's great to have Jo Malone in Hannover.

If anyone is looking to move to Hannover to open a business, please bring a Cupcake bakery and a Bubble Tea shop! :)

Well happy Friday everyone!!!!

(image: bryant park flower shop, nyc, thorsten becker)