by Johann Peter Baum
Wuppertal is about 50 km from Köln (Cologne). This city hall was intended for concerts, theater and other such events. The design was done in cooperation with Paul Wallot, who was the architect of the Reichtag. The Stadthalle was started in 1895 and opened in 1900.
Due to the scale that AV Baum chose, he had neither the stones nor the room to build the entire structure. So he built the model against the wall, a technique used with great success by Ludwig Kesselring. The building is in the renaissance style, with a strong horizontal line.
The building is large -- 180 cm wide, 65 cm deep and 85 cm high. 180 cm is just one inch less than 6 feet! All in all, some 9,399 stones were used -- 4,769 yellow stones, 2,798 red stones and 1,832 roof stones, mainly blue with a few yellow ones.
An overall view.
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The roof on the front part was made with stones with a very shallow slope
-- 4 to 1 and 8 to 1. The central section has a flat roof made from
62B stones from the new factory.
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A close-up of the tower. The detailing is very impressive.
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A look at the floors, which were made from the Täfelchenlegen stones.
Richter's mosaic stones result in a diamond pattern.
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A look at the interior.
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