Offenbach invests in the future and upgrades school locations

With the support of the federal and state governments, the city of Offenbach has already invested around 632 million euros since 2007 to build new daycare centers and schools or to massively improve the spatial conditions for education in existing facilities. 62 percent of the total of 17,986 pupils, i.e. 11,166 children and young people, are already being taught in renovated schools, according to Thomas Löhr, head of the municipal education authority. A further 21.6 percent, or 3,889 pupils, attend educational establishments where partial renovations and improvements have already taken place or are being planned, according to Löhr.

"We are not letting up here," assures Paul-Gerhard Weiß, Head of Education and Planning, "but in the meantime we must also take into account Offenbach's enormous development dynamics." More than in almost any other Hessian municipality, the population has grown by leaps and bounds from just under 120,000 people to the size of a veritable small town in just a few years. Offenbach now has over 142,000 inhabitants.

Infrastructure development must also keep pace with this sharp increase. 2016 therefore saw a paradigm shift in the school refurbishment program. The original order of the listed projects, which primarily involved the refurbishment of buildings, could no longer be adhered to. Paul-Gerhard Weiß: "We will continue to tackle renovation projects that are urgently needed, but at the same time we must prioritize increasing capacity and create childcare and teaching places for the many new children in Offenbach."

There is hardly a refurbishment project in the childcare and education sector, be it a daycare center or school, that has not been accompanied by a spatial expansion and thus an increase in the number of groups or classes. In addition, there are completely new educational facilities such as new elementary school in the southern inner city and in the Bieber-Nord and Rumpenheim districts, a new upper secondary school on Rosenhöhe, a new secondary school in the new 4.0 development quarter at the former goods station and also a new special school for young people with disabilities in their mental and physical-motor development in Mühlheimer Straße.

The city is well advanced with its new construction and renovation program, particularly in the area of daycare centers. With the exception of the current replacement building for the Friedensstraße daycare centre (1), all municipal childcare facilities have been modernized.

"Many projects are running in parallel, have to be implemented without disrupting daycare operations and school lessons and are sometimes highly complex in terms of organization and technology," says Anna Heep, who has been Head of Building Construction Management at the Office for Planning and Construction since 2004. Pupils and teachers often move temporarily into interim facilities for the duration of the construction work. Some of these temporary school buildings consist of multi-storey room modules.

One of the most complex and cost-intensive projects is the new construction of the Bieber-Nord educational complex, currently costing 36.5 million euros. This project integrates a three-form entry elementary school, a six-group daycare center and a two-story gymnasium into a single building complex. Construction began in January of this year and the building is expected to open in September 2023.

The extension of the Lindenfeld integrated comprehensive school to include a two-form entry elementary school in two construction phases is particularly challenging in terms of construction logistics. The schoolyard and supply lines will also be renewed. The costs are expected to amount to 32.0 million euros. Following preparatory work, the new building is due to start in August of this year. Commissioning is scheduled for 2026.

In order to create more space on the school grounds on Friedensstrasse, the daycare center (1) there will have to be relocated to a site outside the area at an estimated cost of 7.5 million euros. Construction began in October last year. Completion of the daycare center, which will be expanded to include a fifth group, is scheduled for the second quarter of 2023.

"In general, we are not just expanding schools, but also significantly upgrading the respective school locations overall," says city councillor Paul-Gerhard Weiß.

This applies to the Rumpenheim Ernst Reuter Comprehensive School, for example. It, too, is being extended and will receive a separate wing for a three-form entry elementary school for an estimated 25.2 million euros in order to create space in the main building for a future five-form entry school. The main building itself will be renovated and receive structural improvements. In addition to the original plans, the schoolyard, parking lot and access road will also be redesigned.

The city is also responding to rising pupil numbers by expanding and renovating the Geschwister-Scholl comprehensive school in Bieber, which will be able to accommodate six instead of four pupils in future. With planned investment costs currently amounting to 39.5 million euros, work began at the start of this year on the construction of a modern replacement building for the so-called Schusterbau. This classroom building was no longer economically viable for renovation. A new pellet heating system has already been put into operation. Following the completion of the replacement building, which is expected in the third quarter of 2023, the main building (atrium building) and the specialist classroom wing will be renovated in terms of energy efficiency by the end of the year.

The capacity of the Mathildenschule, which currently has around 800 pupils, is also set to increase significantly to around 1,000. The city is expected to invest 34.0 million euros in the expansion and renovation of the integrated comprehensive school. This includes a striking, arch-shaped and elaborately founded new building, which will go into operation after this year's summer vacations and will be equipped with additional classes, differentiation and homework rooms as well as a kitchen and canteen. The main building will then be renovated in several construction phases until the end of 2024.

"Managing all of this in such a short space of time takes a lot of effort and can only be achieved in close cooperation between the building authority, building inspectorate, city education authority and municipal utilities," agree Simon Valerius, Head of the Office for Planning and Construction, and Daniela Matha, Managing Director of OPG Offenbacher Projektentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (OPG). Stadtwerke's real estate subsidiary OPG manages almost all projects on behalf of the City of Offenbach's building construction management department and handles them on a fiduciary basis during the implementation phase.

One special case is the new €27.5 million Fröbelschule building, which was started in 2020 and has already been completed. The builder of the special school, in whose therapy pool Offenbach primary school pupils will also receive swimming lessons, is the Stadtwerke subsidiary GBO Gemeinnützige Baugesellschaft Offenbach mbH, from which the city rents the special school. Further investments in development, outdoor facilities and furnishings totaling 6.8 million euros were made by the city.

An architectural competition was recently held for the largest and, with an estimated total volume of 72 million euros, also the most cost-intensive individual project, the establishment of a new six-form grammar school with a three-court sports hall for 1,400 to 1,500 pupils. The designs for the competition, which is being supervised by the building construction management department and OPG, are expected to be submitted by the end of the year. The secondary school is to be built on the eastern edge of the new "Quartier 4.0" between the railroad tracks at the former goods station and a neighborhood square and will be completed for the 2027/2028 school year.

The city initially set aside 50 million euros in the budget for this major project, but has since increased this amount to 72 million euros due to price developments in the construction sector. However, in view of the tense situation on the construction market, it seems questionable whether this sum will still be available by the planned start of construction in 2024 and can only be substantially determined in the course of further planning.

"We have been dealing with an extraordinary construction boom for years," says Oliver Frey, OPG Head of Building Construction. "The coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and now the looming energy crisis have made the situation even worse," says Frey. Material shortages and rising prices for building materials, as well as delivery delays and capacity problems on construction sites, have led to delays and construction prices that are difficult to calculate.

OPG Managing Director Daniela Matha: "Inflation and the dramatically worsening tendering situation are also driving up prices." For the extension of the Humboldt School, which is to receive a new building with a cafeteria and childcare rooms in modular timber construction and a new sewer connection by the start of the 2023/2024 school year at a cost of €5.96 million, only one bidder submitted a tender that was unacceptable from a procurement law perspective.

The project is now to be put out to tender again with the same project content, but with a more differentiated breakdown and, for cost reasons, not only timber construction, but all types of construction available on the market are to be requested. The new building is urgently needed so that the growing elementary school in the child-rich Senefelder district can operate all day. Whether the costs will remain the same will become clear in the fall.

Building director Anna Heep: "Under all these circumstances, reliable cost planning has become extremely difficult." This is why the agenda of the city council always includes proposals for additional costs. The project content also changes in such a complex situation right up to the actual start of the project, meaning that there are also additions to the project content, which also have a cost-increasing effect.

On the other hand, new construction projects cannot simply be postponed until the situation has eased. Paul-Gerhard Weiß, Head of Education and Planning: "The new rooms are urgently needed, and we cannot afford to lose federal and state funding that is tied to specific deadlines."

Even though the city has been focusing on new buildings and extensions since 2016, which may be combined with complete refurbishments, the schools that have not yet been considered are not simply left out: Here, the city has moved on to partial renovations of windows, heating or sanitary facilities as well as other necessary measures and modernizations. The municipal utility subsidiary GBM Service GmbH (GBM), which has been allocated a separate budget by the city, has been commissioned with these "general school refurbishment measures".

Up to now, GBM has traditionally used the school holidays to repair, renovate, replace and apply new paint to empty buildings and open break areas in schools and daycare centers on behalf of the city's building construction management department. GBM Managing Director Stefan Tischberger: "During the summer vacations, we also set up scooter parking spaces for the young people of Offenbach, apply playground markings or have green spaces created."

In the meantime, more complex measures have been added. The largest individual projects currently include work at the Goethe School, the old existing building of the Fröbel School in Goethestrasse and the Leibniz School.

The largest single item is the window refurbishment at the Goethe School, costing around 750,000 euros. GBM began replacing the windows in stages during the Easter vacations. The work should be completed by the end of the summer vacation.

The school community of the Fröbelschule will move into the new building on Mühlheimer Straße during the summer vacations. Part of the former special school building will be used by the Rudolf Koch School from the start of the school year. GBM is working under great time pressure to fit out four classrooms, the cafeteria room, the music room, the school sports hall and the toilets for the cramped grammar school.

At Leibnizschule, the craftsmen and women were already in the starting blocks on the last day of school before the vacations. After the pupils had left the grammar school with their certificates, work began on dismantling the rigid rows of chairs and platforms in two science classrooms. After dismantling, minor electrical work will be carried out, the walls will be painted and a new floor will be laid. A good three weeks' work has been estimated so that the children and young people will find science rooms that can be used more flexibly in the new school year.