Today’s plan is to visit a few highlights within the Emscher Regional Park. My previous entry - the Duisburg Landschaft Park is part of the Emscher Regional Park. Actually, it’s a small part of a massive effort to revive a region devastated by hundreds of years of industrialization – specifically steel and coal. Flowing through this region is the Emscher River receiving industrial effluents for centuries until just twenty years ago. The image of this region is that of powerstations, smokestacks, huge pylons and massive powerworks.
Yet, the region is no longer the engine it used to be, and what was left are the industrial artifacts in the landscape.To start, I would like to introduce you to Michael Swarze Rodrian. As a landcape architect and planner, Michael has worked on landscape design and ecology issues in the Ruhrgebiet since the early 80’s. As I get to know his background, I realize that he has been a key collaborator in creating the vision for the Emscher Regional Park project and has been patiently negotiated many political administrations, economic ups and downs, and career changes, holding onto the idea of the regional park. Its very impressive to see the level of dedication and perseverance, and I could not have asked for a more knowledgeable guide. Michael views the industrial remains in the Ruhr region as the greatest assets that can drive the regeneration of the area. To this end, he explains that ecology and environmental restoration are the key organizing principles behind renaturalizing the Emscher River, bringing positive use to the riverbanks, and reusing the industrial buildings with new and sustainable uses. Today this regional partnership includes three counties and 23 large cities. Each city or town takes on its own projects based on the agreed upon master plan (I mailed a copy back for us.) Check the project website at http://elp2010.de/. As I absorb the extent of the efforts made, I realize that this region is possibly the largest such interpretation and reuse of an industrial landscape ever!
We stop at a small mark – an ‘XE’ at the start of a trail at Bottrop, our first stop. Michael shares that in the first few years of the project, a group of local environmentalists started a hiking group marking the trails with an X, followed by an E for Emscher. That is how it all started. Today, the trails run in a circle around the region for more than 250 kilometers.
Bottrop is the location of the Tetrahedron, a massive steel sculpture that captures the ridge on a slag heap. As we get to the middle of the circle next to which the structure rises, I notice that there is a gentle and steady drop in grade to the middle. Michael explains that the designers intended for the person in the middle to view nothing else except the rim of the slag heap, the tetrahedron and the sky. I pause to stand in the middle of this vast circle of stone and view the sky all around me. 
In the far distance, I see a solitary figure crouching over the stones. When I ask Michael what the man is doing, he says, ‘You’ll find out when you climb to the top’. 
The Tetrahedron was built to reveal the landscape of the region to its people, and has become something that everyone is proud to visit and show off. 
The pictures illustrate this project much better than I ever will in words. In the night, the steel bars are lit in a special way and can be seen for miles around. As I start to climb, the landscape of the region emerges – smokestacks - some working and others not, train lines, massive steel structures, coal mines. It’s quite extraordinary.Then, I look down at the stone circle below and the mystery of the solitary figure reveals itself! Giant martians and other terrestrial beings stare up at me!
Michael mentions that the man picks out the lighter colored stones to create these figures and has been doing so for five years now. When we descend from the tetrahedron, we stop to talk to him - I am curious about the future. Michael says that he’s interested in expanding the martian family!Our next stop is the Nordstern, a former Colliery that is now a fully functional office, housing, retail complex with many acres of a landscaped park that was created by the National Garden Show in 1997. (Flower Shows here are outdoors, run for six months and are in the process of design and actual implementation for a couple years before the show opens – interesting model.)
The main administration building of the office complex is housed in the factory, and new bridges and pedestrian walkways connect various parts of the site together. 
There are open air theatres, rose gardens, a small daycare center, water fountains and large plazas, all used now by the office goers and nearby residents. 
A beautiful riverfront amphitheatre is being set up for today's concert. 
The remaining wall of an old factory building has been retained, and the landscape that has colonized next to it is fascinating to see. 
An old coal shaft is now the new entrance to the museum. 
I am taken by the harsh angles in the landscape, the vast meadows and sharply sloped walkways. The grades make for dramatic views of the old industrial infrastructure! 
The environmental issues in this area continue to pose huge challenges. I’m shocked to view the open sewer that still runs the length of the region. Its presence is a knife cut in the landscape, right adjacent to the clean waters of the Ruhr. 
Our next stop is at Zollverien, the best known site along this industrial landscape. 
The plant was closed in 1986, and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In its heydays, This colliery and coking plant produced 12,000 tons of coal and turned it into coke. Today, it’s a meeting point for cultural activities, and design professionals. 
The largest boiler house has been transformed into the Red Dot Design Museum by Sir Norman Foster. This museum is all about products that have been tested and given the ‘red dot of approval’ celebrating contemporary industrial, product, furniture and home designers. The site also houses local architects and designers in studios integrated into the old storage houses. A reflecting pool becomes a skating rink in the winter. 
When I look around I understand that there is an eco-exhibit and a meeting of the German Environment Ministry being held - there are lots of men and women in black suits and headphones buzzing around. Apparently it’s also an exhibition and conference center! I travel up the huge orange escalator to the main museum space – a Rem Koolhas signature piece. 
In the mid-80’s there was a growing interest among local and regional government to retain this former steel mine as a site that expressed the history of the region. What was yet to be discovered was how. This early thinking led to an international competition in the early 1990’s to imagine the future of this site. The competition was won by Peter Latz and Annaliese Latz, a German landscape design and planning firm known for its deconstructionist thinking.
I feel very tiny amidst the enormous industrial infrastructure. The park is 200 hectares, which translates to almost 500 acres. Remnants of the industrial days dot the landscape. 
Massive overhead ducts, rusted steel infrastructure, enormous gas tanks, rail infrastructure, cooling towers, giant storage bins, and bunker areas used for holding massive amounts of coal make up the existing conditions when Peter Latz started the reclamation process. There were many contaminants to reckon with, unsafe buildings and a polluted open sewer (Yes, OPEN!) to boot!
As I walk around I feel the quiet power of times gone by. It must have been such a huge loss for people when production stopped here and the flames were snuffed out for the last time. Jobs were gone, and the economy was in ruins. While much of the landscape must look the same, the transformations are precise, insightful and perfect. Dramatic entrances greet me, I go indoors and outdoors seamlessly and seek out stories on signs along the way that help me understand what used to be. 
Buildings are repurposed with new uses and in exciting ways for the community to gather – theatres, plazas, performance spaces, and recreation areas. Small garden areas for the community are interspersed amids the industrial artifacts. 
As I walk around, people are setting up for a number of events – corporate retreats, community theatre, school groups who are visiting to learn about the mine. A storage tank area is now a climbing garden - lessons are available for all levels. 
Climbing nets strewn along sloped areas wait for the next adventurer. 
An old gasometer has been turned into a diving tank. Would you believe me if I said that I got a diving lesson here? 
Theatres with retractable roofs have been integrated into the old production area creating spaces for community movies. 
The space that I love the most is Piazza Metallica, an outdoor gathering space that marks the center of this mine. Massive steel plates found at the site have been placed in a grid to mark the central area of the complex. Today it serves as a outdoor performance space. 
New walkways and paths connect spaces beautifully giving me the opportunity to view the site from above and below. The drama is heightened as I climb to the viewing tower and experience the vast landscape around me.
The horizon is strikingly green, interrupted by the industrial artifacts. Meadows have become new concert grounds. I see an advertisement for Jethro Tull for later in June!
What I appreciate most is the way that Peter Latz weaves the areas together with landscape elements – lines of trees, walkways, native shrub plantings, and stone blocks that give me a chance to sit and look around.
Naturalized walkways follow the path of trainlines and old roads, connecting the larger landscapes to each other.
These simple gestures connect the ‘serious’ industrial elements together, making blast furnaces and concrete bunkers accessible and usable. 
Tree stakes are made from recycled steel posts found on the site. 
A huge slide hugs the wall of a bunker. 
I am awed by how the various elements come together, telling its story so beautifully.
Now, about that open sewer! Well, it’s thought to be the old Emscher river and was what the mine used as its outflow. This needed to be addressed before the park could be opened. The sewage now flows underground contained in massive pipes. A new river has returned to the canal above, following its severe straight lines and filled with rainwater. One can see how much water is there when one visits. The deck gives swimmers a place to plunge in. 
Plant selections across the entire site have been thought through carefully. Based on the soil contents, plants that can colonize effectively were chosen for specific areas. Walled gardens between concrete bunkers have become experimental planting beds and community gardens – my favorite is the fern garden. 
The park is now managed by a non-profit entity that programs and maintains the site, and brings in approximately 4 million euros each year for its management. The director Dirk Bruesing, is doing great things to diversify programs and activities and broaden the funding base. He has a particular interest in the old trains and machines in the park and is planning to exhibit more of these items in the future. 
In preparation for this trip, my husband patiently showed me how to use my digital camera. If I had the patience to learn how to use the camera in the night without a flash, I’d have some great photos. Well, I do – their just in my head! 
The skies clear as I start. For years Dusseldorf’s waterfront was dominated by a huge highway, separating the city from its river. The Rhine is beautiful, not unlike the Delaware – a wide working river that has served as the economic spine of this area for centuries. It was in the 1990’s that local government, with the help of state and federal funding, decided to bury the highway and join the city to its river. From what I hear, as the project progressed resources ran thin. The architects had to scale back the grand promenade considerably from their original design. As a result the final results are simpler, yet very successful in reconnecting the river to people in many new ways. 
Boat tours take tourists for scenic tours of the Rhine from here. 
The landscape is simple - a double row of topped London plane trees with benches between. 
Sloped lawns attract sun-bathers and provide a flat foreground in for better views of the river. 
This is where the lunch crowd congregates, watching people go by. Remnants of the working river give visitors reason to pause and remember. (Yes, there is graffiti everywhere!)
The north section of the promenade reconnects Dusseldorf’s theatre and restaurant area. In the night, a beautifully lit pedestrian link connects to the river and is heavily used in the evenings. 
A building by Frank Gehry shimmers in the sun. 
Funky art pops up everywhere. As does a floating box that contains a restaurant in the middle of the river!
There are very few cars with direct access to the river, except for a few local and service lanes. Making the area pedestrian and bike friendly is what makes this riverfront a huge success. Cleaning the river has been a huge focus as well and canoes now dot the waters. 
