Max-Joseph-Platz is framed by listed beauty: the Residenz in the north, the opera and Residenztheater in the east, the Opern-Palais in the south, Renaissance town houses in the west – not forgetting the king himself, who in the middle of it all has lions on his bronze base enthroned. And yet this trapezoidal area, which should actually be the living room of the city, can’t quite keep up with all the splendor all around. Hardly anyone would think of spending a mild summer evening on the bumpy Isar pebbles at the foot of the Max Joseph monument. “Lack of quality of stay” is what urban planners call the jargon.
Traffic is to blame. The square serves on the one hand as an entrance and exit for the opera garage with its 570 seats and on the other hand as a turning area for sightseeing and other buses. But now the city council wants a piazza feeling to finally set in on Max-Joseph-Platz. The buses are to be banned and the access to the underground car park relocated. Various variants have been examined since 2018. On Wednesday, the City Council’s building, mobility and planning committee voted in favor of relocating the access road to Maximilianstrasse with the votes of the Greens/Pink List, SPD/Volt, ÖDP/Munich-List and Left.
The plan is to have two ramps that are as inconspicuous as possible at the level of the National Theater. A double-rowed avenue could then be planted along the street again, as can be seen in historical photos from the 19th century. Presumably the trees later fell victim to the construction of the tramway.
According to the city administration, such a fundamental conversion of Max-Joseph-Platz can only start when – probably in 2033 – the construction site for the second main S-Bahn line at Marienhof is finished, because the construction site traffic there is partly handled via Maximilianstrasse. And then the city must also reach an agreement with the underground car park operator Mühoga, whose building lease for the car park runs until 2061. To relocate the access ramps, the company would have to convert the parking levels, which could cost up to 50 million euros – and 70 to 100 of the 570 parking spaces.
Because the big hit is a dream of the future and because of the large construction site for the second S-Bahn trunk line at Marienhof, there is a lack of green recreation areas in the center, there will be an interim solution that Green-Red wants to implement as early as 2025, a year earlier than proposed by the city government. For this purpose, as the majority of the committees decided on Wednesday, the access to the underground car park across the square should be significantly narrower and the resulting area of 1500 square meters in front of the residence and opera house should be planted with plants and chairs. The 2,000 square meter memorial roundel is to be unsealed and, according to the template, become a “bee and eye candy” with species- and flower-rich grasses and wild perennials.
There should be significantly more greenery in front of the opera and the Residenztheater.
(Photo: Building Department)
The administration does not accept objections that such a redesign could seem silly in view of the prominent architecture all around: As an interim, it “represents an improvement compared to the current situation”. They have also agreed with the State Opera. To be on the safe side, however, the concept should be presented to the city planning commission and monument protection.
The 90-minute debate in the committee was marked by polemics. While Brigitte Wolf (Die Linke) could imagine maintaining the interim solution until 2061 and shutting down the opera garage after the heritable building right expired, Jörg Hoffmann (FDP) was outraged that it was not possible to destroy infrastructure in order to then “consumption-free” in a closed underground car park hosting “foam parties”.
Christian Müller (SPD) campaigned for “city repairs” on “one of the key squares in the city center”. Veronika Mirlach (CSU) feared the destruction of Maximilianstrasse, an “architectural masterpiece”. She pleaded for the ramps to be moved towards Residenzstrasse, where Anna Hanusch (Greens) saw cyclists and pedestrians endangered.
The interim solution, which in contrast to the final conversion is planned in the distant future, was also controversial. The only consensus was that the square should be beautified as soon as possible. However, the monument protection did not say “that they want to have an allotment garden there,” objected Hans Hammer (CSU) to the draft. “And we won’t save the world with a few square meters of grass either,” explained Alexander Reissl (CSU).
Long-term project: The entrance to the underground car park is to be relocated to Maximilianstrasse, with trees growing next to it.
(Photo: Building Department)
In favor of the economy and traffic, the CSU also wants to slow down the open space concept for the city center, the presentation of which on Wednesday was postponed to May due to lack of time. This emerges from the CSU amendments. The concept from the planning department formulates recommendations for dealing with open spaces in times of climate change and conflicts of use. The paper takes a closer look at three focus areas: According to the concept, Sonnenstraße, today a car lane with tram tracks in the middle, is to be redesigned in the east into a climate terrace with green areas and rainwater infiltration. In addition to the green track bed and bus lane, the cars on the west side would have a narrow street. The Herzog-Wilhelm-Park right next door is to be extended to the north beyond Josephspitalstraße, where there is an underground car park. And the valley is to be turned into a boulevard with priority for pedestrians, and if possible without cars.