"People's ideas about this place are often way off the mark. The reality is often much better than outsiders expect" insists Wibke Hübener, estate manager for the development on Frankfurt's Ben-Gurion-Ring road, as she tracks down a free parking space. The drive to the Ring passes windowless rear walls of giant car parks behind which ten-storey residential buildings stretch up into the sky. The view also takes in a large building site. The car soon parked just a short walk from her office, graduate engineer Hübener begins to recount what has been happening here over the last few years.

The estate does not enjoy the best of reputations by any means, a verdict she considers totally unjust. "The people who actually live here are happy here and have a good community. It's a great neighbourhood and we are working together to make that clear to the outside world," she explains as she opens the office. The estate office is located on the ground floor of a building on the northern edge of the "Bügel", as the estate is colloquially referred to in Frankfurt (the name is derived from the old field names for the hill on which the estate sits). A bakery, a hair salon, a pharmacy and a household goods shop stand side-by-side nearby and several doctors have practices on the upper floor. The space behind Hübener's office window is filled by a large model railway assembled by a group of older men from the estate before Christmas. "The children were there, noses pressed to the glass, for weeks!"

"The question is how to regenerate the estate on the Ben-Gurion-Ring. And I cannot imagine any better experts to advise on that than the people who actually live here," Hübener says. A series of workshops, meetings and initiatives were organised to bring residents and experts together. The result? A total of 16 measures ranging from a campaign to improve the district's public image to green space improvements to a neighbourhood meeting place in the form of a community cafe. District management, for which Hübener is responsible on site, is also included in this "integrated urban development concept".

"With 330 homes, we are creating a whole new little residential quarter – and completing the Ring at the same time."  The project closes a circle for Wedler at a personal level too. "When I first joined GWH 25 years ago, I stood here – a young man from the countryside – and gazed in wonder at the towering buildings," he recalls. "Today I know how far GWH has brought the estate over those 25 years." There has been very significant investment but this is often not evident from the outside, which is one of the reasons Wedler is keen to see improvements to paths and open spaces as well as internal upgrades to existing buildings and homes. "The new development, in contrast, will be a highly visible addition," he says, pointing to a model of the Ben-Gurion-Ring to show how all the pieces will come together.

En­hanc­ing in­fra­struc­ture

Will increasing the number of residents as planned place too much of a burden on the estate's services? Wedler shakes his head: "The infrastructure at the Ben-Gurion-Ring site is excellent. Residents can meet all their day-to-day needs on foot and here, in contrast to a greenfield location, public transport, shops and medical care are all already in place. The new development will integrate very well with the existing setting too – and without taking up a huge amount of space." GWH, he adds, has also invested heavily in improving the social infrastructure with a childcare facility and student apartments. One of the highlights for Wedler are the private and public parks and grounds, for which he cannot thank the 1970s planners enough: "They had a wonderful eye and feel for green spaces."