Quaianlagen (Zurich)

The quays are situated in the districts of Enge, Seefeld and Wollishofen at the lower Lake Zurich shore within the city of Zurich. The complete construction includes, among others, the central Bürkliplatz on the outflow of the Lake Zurich, and (from west to east coast) Saffa-Insel, Strandbad Mythenquai, Belvoirpark, Mythenquai, Arboretum, General-Guisan-Quai, Sechseläutenplatz, Utoquai, Seebad Utoquai, Seefeldquai, Riesbach Harbour, Centre Le Corbusier, Blatterwiese, Chinagarten, Zürichhorn and Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen. Two of the prehistoric pile dwellings around Lake Zurich with UNESCO World Heritage status are located in Zurich: Alpenquai and Kleiner Hafner. == Further points of interests ==

Blatterwiese Blatterwiese is a wide and popular neighborhood meadow situated between Seefeldquai and Zürichhorn, established in 1839 as an industrial area, it has since then also been 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 Zurich was inaugurated. 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 was rebuilt with a ZüriWC public toilet. 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. General-Guisan-Quai The Alpenquai on the left bank – renamed General-Guisan-Quai 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 and 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. There is a restaurant, Quai61, and a very popular snack bar at the parking facility adjoining the Arboretum, also housing a ZüriWC. Hafen Riesbach 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, Landiwiese 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. Mädchen mit erhobenen Händen is the most remarkable sculpture at the area and is a work by Hermann Haller, created in 1939. Mythenquai 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 Zurich, 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, Zurich's executive organ) decided to develop a master plan for this area of the lakeside promenades. 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 == History ==

, Quaibrücke, Bürkliplatz, Bauschänzli, Münsterbrücke, Rathausbrücke, and Weinplatz (aerial photograph by Eduard Spelterini, probably late 1890s) The site of the former Kratzquartier accommodation and Bauhaus district at the Bauschänzli (today's Stadthausanlage) was extended in 1833 by landfill with rubble of the baroque city fortification along the lake shore. This also marked the end of the medieval Kratzquartier as the distinctive urban axis, extending from Zentralhof, Kappelerhof, and Münsterhof towards the Bürkliterrasse, once home to the underprivileged citizens of Zurich. The medieval quarter had been thoroughly overhauled between 1836 and 1900, and was entirely demolished for the purpose of building a modern lakeshore city. The large-scale land reclamation works began in the area of Utoquai in the 1860s, requiring a total of 24.1 million cubic meters (850 million cu ft) of stone material and lake mud for an area of about . This was brought in by ship and introduced by machines specially designed for this purpose. The typical procedure was to construct a breakwater and then backfill it with less-stable lake marl. Railway construction and excavations of tunnels and cuts in Riesbach also provided material, and municipalities and private organizations were invited to deposit rubble, being compensated for large quantities. Arnold Bürkli-Ziegler gave up his position as city engineer to be the chief engineer and coordinator of the project. The construction work began in late 1881, with plans to present parts of the quays at the Swiss national exhibition of 1883. But the whole coastal zone had to be transformed in a time-consuming and costly process in public ownership. Previously, nearly the entire lake area was inaccessible to the public, as the shore land belonged to private owners. A contemporary commented: "Zurich had a lake, but it [the city] did not see it, and his position [for the public] was almost a secret." The inauguration was held in July 1887, and Quaibrücke became the link between the left (Limmat downstream or southerly) and right side of the lake. The elegant promenade of Utoquai, Bürkliterrasse (Alpenquai), and the General-Guisan-Quai lined up on the right side of the lake. The Arboretum, as a spacious park facility, became the southerly connection towards Mythenquai and present Wollishofen. The Swiss National Exhibition in 1939 initiated the further extensions of the existing plan. A monorail was built between the two shores of the lake, but was taken down shortly after the exhibition. At Zürichhorn, the popular tourist restaurant Casino Zürichhorn was removed temporarily to provide space for the buildings of the exhibition, one of which was preserved as the Fischerstube restaurant. In the 1950s, on the fallow area between the railway station Tiefenbrunnen and Zürichhorn, the Seebad Tiefenbrunnen lido was erected; in the 1960s, the new building of the restaurant Lakeside and the Centre Le Corbusier were built. As part of the horticultural exhibition 1959 (G59), Seefeldquai underwent important changes: the present natural embankment design in the English landscape style between Riesbach harbour and Zürichhorn, the removal of nearly century-old trees, and the replacement of all embankments with sandstone slabs and stones. In the mid-1960s, at the height of the Riesbachstrasse harbour area, some owners sold their property at Seefeldquai; in its place emerged several corporate offices and the private clinic Seepyramyde. The last extension was the Chinagarten Zürich at Zürichhorn. == Literature ==

• Gartenbiografien: Orte erzählen. vdf Hochschulverlag AG, ETH Zürich, Zurich 2013, . • Roman G. Schönauer: Von der Stadt am Fluss zur Stadt am See. 100 Jahre Zürcher Quaianlagen. Verlag Matthieu (Zürcher Heimatschutz), published by Stadtrat, Zurich 1987/2006, ISBN . == References ==