Historic Centre of Vienna

• Housing: High-rise construction projects in Central Vienna (proposed Vienna Ice-Skating Club – Intercontinental Hotel – Vienna Konzerthaus ‘Heumarkt Neu’ project)
• Proposed new developments, including the Wien Museum and the Winterthur Building
• Legal framework: Lack of effectiveness of the overall protection and governance of the property (issue partially resolved)
• Legal framework: Lack of appropriateness of planning controls in the ‘High-Rise Concept 2014’ and the ‘Glacis Master Plan’ (issue partially resolved)
• Major visitor accommodation and associated infrastructure
• Desirability of conservation of historic roof constructions within the property (issue partially resolved)

The current planning controls: adopted developments and lack of adequate planning rules

Proposed and adopted by the World Heritage Committee in its Decision 44 COM7A.32

Proposed and adopted by the World Heritage Committee in its Decision 44 COM7A.32

Adopted by the World Heritage Committee, see page https://whc.unesco.org/en/decisions/7695 and https://whc.unesco.org/archive/2021/whc21-44com-7A.Add-en.pdf

N/A

On 30 January 2024, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1033/documents, providing information on measures implemented in response to Decision 45 COM 7A.55. Subsequently, a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/ICCROM Advisory mission visited the property in March 2024 (mission report will be available at the above-mentioned link). The State Party reports on the progress of the implementation of the adopted corrective measures as follows:

• Significant progress has been made in implementing corrective measures for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger;
• In September 2023, the Vienna City Council adopted a legally binding annex to the Viennese Building Code, committing to safeguard the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, thereby anchoring the new Management Plan in the legal system of the City;
• In November 2023, the Provincial Parliament of Vienna adopted the new Viennese Building Code, which includes provisions to strengthen the protection of World Heritage properties;
• A revised proposal for the Heumarkt Neu project (submitted to the World Heritage Centre in August 2023) reduced the height of the residential slab (from 56.5m to 49.9m), reduced the built volume by 20% and eliminated two storeys. A new Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) acknowledges the improvement with respect to OUV, but proposes further modifications to achieve the required outcome that does not increase the negative impact of the existing Hotel Intercontinental and supports the OUV of the property;
• An HIA assessed the building activities in the Schwarzenberg Garden and concluded that the impact on the OUV of the property would not be significant, but proposed mitigation measures to minimise or eliminate the impact. The HIA also included a comprehensive survey of the conservation of the historic gardens within the property and a series of recommendations;
• The City of Vienna completed the renovation of the Wien Museum in 2023;
• The extension of the roof cadastre to include historic metal structures is progressing;
• The amendment of the Federal Monuments Protection Act by the National Assembly of Austria is expected in 2024;
• Most of the corrective measures to achieve the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR) adopted by the Committee have been completed;
• A joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/ICCROM Advisory mission was invited to the property in March 2024 to advise on the degree of implementation of the corrective measures.

In relation to the August 2023 design version of the Heumarkt Neu project, an ICOMOS Technical Review of the submitted design documentation and associated HIA was transmitted to the State Party on 20 February 2024. Following the Advisory mission, the World Heritage Centre received a further design revision of the Heumarkt Neu project from the State Party on 22 April 2024, proposing a further reduction of the planned residential building by two floors compared to the August 2023 design version, and a modification of the façade design of the proposed hotel component.

The HIA for the Schwarzenberg Garden has been subject to a Technical Review by ICOMOS, the results of which were transmitted to the State Party on 25 June 2024.

The State Party, the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies have continued to exchange views on the corrective measures to achieve the adopted DSOCR.

The adopted amendment to the Viennese Building Code is welcome, as is the continued extension of the roof cadastre to include historic metal structures. The forthcoming amendment of the Federal Monuments Protection Act by the National Assembly and a new Urban Development Strategy for Vienna, known as STEP 2035 (to replace ‘STEP 2025’), are reported to include provisions for the protection of World Heritage properties. The revised and updated Management Plan for the property, which was accepted by the Committee in Decision 45 COM 7A.55, is being implemented and the corrective measures require that the efficacy of the Management Plan be proven in practice through monitoring and evaluation over a period of five years. The Committee may wish to reiterate that revisions to the Management Plan should address issues raised in the 2022 ICOMOS Technical Review, that the role of the site manager needs to be strengthened, and that a monitoring and evaluation programme should be established and reported on. Improving the definition of the attributes that convey the OUV of the property would provide a baseline for this process. Other remaining planning challenges include the lack of a requirement to carry out systematic impact assessments for projects that may adversely affect OUV, the need to establish a systematic process for determining projects that require notification to the World Heritage Centre, and provisions for the legal protection of historic gardens in private ownership.

The ICOMOS Technical Review of the HIA for projects in the Schwarzenberg Garden, including an underground parking garage, the creation of a new restaurant building and beer garden, and the proposed construction of a new hotel wing associated with the reuse of the Schwarzenberg Palace, concluded that as the Schwarzenberg Palace and Garden are an important attribute of the property’s OUV, the proposed hotel wing should not proceed as it would have a negative impact on both the Belvedere and Schwarzenberg complexes and would prevent the State Party from achieving the associated element of the DSOCR. The Technical Review makes further recommendations and suggests that the State Party should submit further details of the design of the Schwarzenberg Garden and documentation of the Schwarzenberg Palace renovation project to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies and implement the mitigation measures included in the HIA.

The Wien Museum project was completed in 2023, and although it was not modified in accordance with the recommendations of the 2018 high-level World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS Advisory mission, and the full design plans previously requested by the Committee were only provided with the State Party’s 2024 state of conservation report, making the corrective measure related to the Wien Museum technically non-compliant, the renovated museum does not have a fundamentally negative impact on the OUV of the property.

With regard to the August 2023 design version of the Heumarkt Neu project, the corresponding HIA concluded that the structural and functional impacts were ‘major positive’ and ‘irrelevant’, while the visual impacts of the proposed design remained ‘large negative’ to the integrity of the property. The ICOMOS Technical Review of February 2024 concurred with the conclusions of the HIA and, while acknowledging that the further reduction in design was a positive step forward, considered that it did not result in a project variant that would enable the State Party to achieve the DSOCR (method of verification for Corrective Measure 5 under ‘Protection and Management’), as it still adversely impacts on the OUV of the property and therefore proposed that there should be further design revisions.

The 2024 Advisory mission acknowledged several positive elements of the Heumarkt Neu project for the local community of the City of Vienna but advised that the benefits of the project could and should be realised without eroding the OUV of the property and emphasised that the high-rise elements remained problematic. The mission presented four design options for these latter two elements and noted that the chosen design should be developed through an iterative impact assessment process (following the Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context) and should respect the authenticity and integrity of the property as a whole and not threaten its OUV. Within the four options proposed by the mission, the maximum recommended height of the future hotel building would be the same as that of the existing building and the height of the residential building is recommended to be visibly lower than that of the existing hotel. The further revised design version of April 2024 (which is the fourth design revision since 2018) proposes to reduce the height of the residential building by a further two storeys (bringing the total height down from 49.9m to 44m, whereas the original design was proposed as a 69.5m high tower). This further revised design version, although considered as a significant effort, does not propose to reduce the height of the planned new hotel slab, which remains higher than the existing building (48m compared to 38m) and its horizontal dimension is also greater than the current structure, although a slightly modified façade design is proposed. As a result, the latest proposal still fails to meet the requirements of the DSCOR.

The 2024 Advisory mission was made aware of several planned projects in and around the property, including the construction of an underground visitor centre directly in front of the Upper Belvedere Palace. An architectural competition resulted in the selection of a project in June 2024. The Advisory mission recommended that the State Party submit documentation, including an HIA, for the proposed visitor centre to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies as a matter of urgency and before any irreversible decisions are taken. The mission was also informed that an extension of the underground metro system, including new stations, which is nearing completion, has also not yet been notified to the World Heritage Centre. These projects, proposed for highly sensitive locations within the property, which have not been notified to the World Heritage Centre in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, nor have they been subject to an HIA in accordance with paragraphs 110 and 118bis of the Operational Guidelines, illustrate that the management system is not yet functioning in a manner that guarantees the safeguarding of the OUV of the property.

The 2024 Advisory mission acknowledged that the State Party had developed a management system that, once fully implemented, should maintain the OUV of the property. It noted that, while significant progress had been made in the implementation of corrective measures, several critical measures remain to be fully implemented (including the development of a final acceptable design for the Heumarkt Neu project and the revision of the design of the proposed new hotel wing in the Schwarzenberg Garden). The property should therefore remain on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Committee may therefore wish to commend the State Party for its efforts to work towards achieving the adopted DSOCR and encourage it to continue the full implementation of the corrective measures, including the monitoring of the adequacy of the management system to protect the OUV of the property, and the processes for assessing impacts on heritage and determining projects that require notification to the World Heritage Centre.