New construction of the stadium in Essen
- Design:PLAN FORWARD GmbH
- GFA|Gr.Vol|NIA:10,300 m² | 48,300 m³ | 5,900 m²
- Visitor seating:20,500, expandable to 26,000 or 35,000 depending on expansion stage
- Services:General planning, HOAI LPH 2 - 8, project management AHO 1 -5
- Completion:2014
- Client:Grundstücksverwaltung Stadt Essen GmbH (GVE)
Project description
The building inaugurated in 1939 as the "Stadion an der Hafenstraße", later named Georg-Melches-Stadion and used as a venue for the Rot-Weiss Essen e.V. soccer club, was dilapidated and therefore demolished. In order to be able to continue playing without interruption, the WOLFF GRUPPE-subsidiaries PLAN FORWARD and W+P realized the new construction slightly offset from the old stadium.
In the first stage of expansion, the city of Essen received a future-proof, modern single-tier stadium with 32 rows of seats and a total capacity of around 20,000. The stadium will offer around 9,000 standing places, around 11,000 seats, 136 press seats, business seats, box seats and wheelchair-accessible seats with companion seats.
In a second expansion phase, a further 5,500 seats could be added by extending the corners. By adding a second tier, the total capacity could even be increased to around 35,000 seats in a possible third expansion phase.