List of buildings considered worthy of preservation completed

For some time now the Department of Inner Cantonal Affairs (DI) has been compiling a list of buildings which are not currently earmarked for preservation but which are worthy of being considered for such. Now it has been announced that this list has been completed and indeed before the planned deadline of the end of this year.

In addition to the DI, the Cantonal Office for the Preservation of Historic Buildings and Monuments, the Historic Buildings Committee and each of the eleven individual municipalities have been involved in drawing up the list.

The main photograph depicts the Sunnegrund school building at number 15 Blickensdorferstrasse in Steinhausen, which was built in the Thirties and is typical of the inter-war years. While the façade and position of the windows is more of the modern period, the hipped roof is a concession to more local design. Now enjoying listed status, it is currently being carefully restored by the municipality there.

The second photograph shows the Röhrliberg school complex in Cham which dates back to 1973 and was designed by architect Josef Stöckli. Characterised by its angular appearance, brick façade and differing heights, it also enjoys listed status and is undergoing painstaking renovation under the auspices of the local municipality.

The third photograph shows the residential and commercial premises of number 15 Zugerstrasse in Neuägeri built in 1864 by confisier Georg Iten after initial development of nearby Seestrasse in1859/60. The wooden built house is strikingly clad with round clapboard and is one example of a property which has been earmarked for potential listing.

At present, between 2.7 per cent (the figure for Walchwil) and 12.7 per cent (the figure for the city of Zug) of buildings in the canton are deemed worth preserving, of which only 2 per cent are currently listed.

Manuela Weichelt-Picard, the member of the cantonal government responsible for such matters, expressed her thanks to the municipalities for their efforts in compiling this list, adding that the great debate about the merits of this building or that building, even if there had been disagreement, showed that the issue had been taken very seriously. It was only self-evident that, with high land prices and the increase in the canton’s population as a whole, the preservation of such buildings had come under great pressure.