Stachus shopping center to be renovated

Completed in 1970, the underground shopping center and transit hub at Karlsplatz/Stachus was once the largest underground construction in Europe. Time, however, has not been kind, and one might now describe it as dark, dirty, and confusing. Stadtwerke München, which owns the complex, has decided to do something about this.

LBBW Immobilien GmbH acquired the rights to run the shopping center for 33 years, beginning January 2007, in exchange for a promise to renovate the property. To this end, LBBW Immobilien is planning to invest some 30 million euro in the shopping center. They invited five architectural firms to submit plans for a new design. Of these, four firms responded. The designs were submitted to a jury, consisting of representatives of the city, LBBW, and experts in architecture. The winning design was submitted by the firm Allmann Sattler Wappner from Munich.

Construction is to begin in March of 2008 and run until the end of 2009. The entrances to the U- and S-Bahn stations will remain available throughout this time.

The designs proposed by the architectural firms are on display in the shopping center, near the Brunnenhof. They will be displayed until October 7.

Article in Süddeutsche Zeitung

This is good news. Only yesterday I was showing a visiting friend around Munich, and going through Stachus, somehow felt the need to explain that most German shopping centres were a lot less dark and jaded than this particular one.