Quaianlagen (Zürich)

Blatterwiese is a wide and popular neighborhood meadow situated between Seefeldquai and Zürichhorn, established in 1839 as a fabrication area, and since then also used as on open public lido. In 1926, the city government acquired the land and broke down the factory building. In 1939, it was the site of the Swiss National Exhibition Landi39, and was also used for the G59 exhibition in 1959. After the horticultural exhibition, the open parkland was taken over by the city government and transformed to a large playground. Between Blatterwiese and Bellerivestrasse, in 1993, the Chinese Garden Zürich was inaugurated.[9] The new Spielplatz Blatterwiese began construction in October 2006 and opened in June 2007. Coordinated with the transformation of the adjacent playground, the former partially underground cable car station of the G59 exhibition[10] was rebuilt with a ZüriWC public toilet.[11] The Centre Le Corbusier (or Heidi Weber Museum), an art museum dedicated to the work of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier, is situated opposite of the playground.

The Alpenquai on the left bank – renamed General-Guisan-Quai[12] after Henri Guisan in 1960 – was created as a terrace-like promenade for the urban population, and four rows of trees were planted. On occasion of the renovation in 2003, the 20th century asphalt-covered surfaces were restored to the original gravel pathways. The original trees, three rows of double-flowered Aesculus hippocastanum Baumannii significantly characterize the appearance of the place. To maintain the same basket-like crown as the elderly chestnut, the young trees are capped at their historical model of the main trunk, the runners are moved to the desired quirl-like crown. In combination with the intervening series of trumpet trees of the species Catalpa bignonioides and Catalpa ovata, the image of a compact roof tree is achieved.[13]

Works of art from three generations adorn this path segment: the sculpture of Ganymede by Hermann Hubacher (1959) on the so-called Bürkliterrasse[14][13] (named after Arnold Bürkli) at Quaibrücke ; the fountain bowl of pink concrete by Christoph Haerle (2003, popularly known as female Ganymede); and the mosaic fountain by Alfred F. Bluntschli (1903) to the east at the Arobetum.[13]

The Hafen Enge, meaning the harbour area in Enge, is situated between the Arboretum and Strandbad Mythenquai. The harbour itself is used as a private-owned marina.[15] There is a restaurant, Quai61, and a very popular snack bar at the parking facility adjoining the Arboretum, also housing a ZüriWC.[11] The harbour is in three sections, beginning at the Arboretum. At the parking facility and towards the Mythenquai there are four boathouses, typically for members; on the parking facility at the Mythenquai lido, it is permitted to park private boats in the winter season. The most popular sculpture there is the so-called Züri-Leu, a colossal statue of a lion (renewed in 2013), situated at the publicly accessible wave-breaker.[16]

The Hafen Riesbach, or Riesbach harbour area, is situated between Seefeldquai and Blatterwiese. The harbour is used as a private-owned marina. In 2004, the old kiosk at the popular open lido at Riesbachstrasse was replaced by a building with a windowed face. The new polygonal pavilion was designed by the architects Andreas Furrimann and Gabrielle Hächler,[17] and now houses a small restaurant and an annexed ZüriWC public toilet.[11] The colour of the windows is reflected by the surroundings, and the pavilion is illuminated in the evening hours. The original seawall front is 200 metres (656 ft) long, and was renovated in 2003 and 2006 but not fully renewed due to risk of collapse; thus the natural stone dry wall was rebuilt in the same way. The Seefeldquai is an important milestone in the work of the landscape architect Willi Neukom, as it combines park designs from different design periods. The stone pillar Klausstud originally stood in the lake and served as a border designation of the medieval right of bann (boundary) of the city republic of Zürich. It marked where fishing rights of the urban fishermen ended, and from here the Einsiedeln Abbey pilgrims proved their honour to the Protestant city by lowering the volume of their prayers and songs. Since the landfills in the construction of the quais, the pillar stands in the middle of the park. The sculpture by Henry Moore is named Sheep Piece, and was donated in 1976.[17]

Named after the Landi39 exhibition, various public events continue to be held here. These include the camp of the Circus Knie when it stages at Sechseläutenplatz, numerous youth events, Zürcher Theater Spektakel, the SAFFA (Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work) in 1958, and the popular artificial island Saffa-Insel that is connected by a small bridge for thousands of people who like to swim or have fun there. Landiwiese includes a large open meadow with a smaller hard court for sports, and is home to valuable old trees. The festival site is part of the last replenishment on the left lake shore; in 1939, it was named for the Swiss National Exhibition (Landesausstellung), and expanded to its present size.[18] Mädchen mit erhobenen Händen is the most remarkable sculpture at the area; a work of Hermann Haller, created in 1939.

Otto C. Banninger's Gottfried Keller memorial (1964) is situated at the Wabengarten, a honeycomb water installation, one of the few relics of the 1959 garden exhibition, G59. It had been constructed for a temporary exhibition, so reductions for bad foundations and water loss occurred in the less-dense pools. A few steps from the shore there's another rare plant in Zürich, Taxodium distichum having pneumatophores, originating from Mississippi River up to Missouri. At the marina, Alnus glutinosa were planted after the flood of May 1999, and because the high water table in the vicinity of the lake gets better than their commitments, a group of Paulownia tomentosa. In 2004 the city council (Stadtrat, Zürich's executive organ) decided to develop a master plan for this area of the lakeside promenades.[13] Because the adjacent lake police (Wasserschutzpolizei der Stadt Zürich) planned a new building,[19] and the public access to Mythenquai had to be reorganized, a general upgrading and redevelopment of the whole area was planned, extending to the parking facilities[13] and Strandbad Mythenquai, Zürich's only sand-beach lido.[2]

The Seefeldquai consists of the popular and historic promenade between Utoquai and Feldeggstrasse at the lakeside environment of the 1970s, leading to Lindenstrasse, opposite of the Mythenquai. It is the southernly extension of the long promenades from Utoquai, having a mix of beaches with sand and gravel areas. Due to fluctuations in the water level, some shore sections had to be secured with boulders. The upright stone pillar Klausstud, named after Saint Nicholas, was the former Bann (boundary) of the medieval city of Zürich, situated near the Riesbach harbour. The 1864-built bathhouse was closed in 1887, but as a substitute of the former Riesbach local authorities approved the construction of two new baths, Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen and Seebad Utoquai. From 1975 to 1977, the waterfront between Feldeggstrasse and Lindenstrasse was redesigned by the landscape architect Willi Neukom. The park was designed with pools, hills and sandstone blocks, and smooth transitions to the private property in the present Seefeld district. The curved routing at the Utoquai roadway, one of the busiest in Zürich, has been set in deliberate contrast to the orthogonal orientation of the paths towards Zürichhorn and Blatterwiese, and was paved with period-typical hexagonal stones. The trees have been integrated into the new design and supplemented with unusual flora, such as beech and hanging pyramidal elms, rhododendrons and azaleas, additional shrub and rose plantings, irises, grasses, and bamboo. In 1999, it was replaced by a more transparent planting, and in 2007, the park area was again upgraded with rose plants.[17]

The Utoquai is situated between the effluence of the river Limmat and Bellevueplatz (respectively the Sechseläutenplatz (Kleiner Hafner) squares), with the Seefeldquai adjoining to the southeast. The promenade was built in 1887 and planted with chestnut trees as a lawn towards the Seebad Utoquai. It was formed as a high seawall with a wrought iron railing, and small stairs leading to the lake's shore. Traffic planners urged a masterplan be developed in the 1960s, which called for the adjacent Bellerivestrasse to be broadened due to the rapidly growing road traffic. The historic lakeside promenade was to be shifted, and construction implemented in 1971 effected a new promenade on concrete piles directly above the water level. However, the project plans were not fully realized, and the waterside path of the 1970s became an additional part of the existing promenades, preserving the chestnut trees of 1887 and resulting in the present, wide promenade. In 2006, the historic seawall was renewed, and the Utoquai's design is now of different time periods. As the old bathhouse had to make place for the construction, the then-independent municipality Riesbach built two new bathing facilities: Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen (1886) and Seebad Utoquai (1890).[4][3] The latter was a "bathing palace" on stilts with delicate, tower-like structures in the Moorish style. For the first time in Zürich, it was permitted for men and women to bathe in the same place. In 1942, the towering domes were enhanced by the construction of wooden sun terraces, and the basic structure of the original bathing room is still preserved. The Utoquai figures in Inventar der schützenswerten Gärten und Anlagen von kommunaler Bedeutung, being the inventory of estimable gardens and grounds of local importance that was established in 1989.[20]