RISTOLA SCORES ENVIRONMENTAL WIN IN GERMANY

By Trevor Ledger


EMSTAL, Germany - A phenomenal success story has been created here on the banks of the River Ems by architect Tony Ristola in the shape of an extension to the Lingen Golf Course. The extension was made all the more impressive considering the vehement opposition of environmental pressure group Bund Fr Umvelt and Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUND).

"The beginning of the construction phase was, for both the environmentalists and the club a small part of Hell," said Ristola. The resulting course, Ristola's second in Germany, lead BUND to announce: "We admit this: we made a mistake. [The project] is now a model for the integration of a sports park in a protected area." Ristola's first site visit was less than illuminating - seven-feet high stands of corn stretched as far as the eye could see, shielding any potential features for the architect. Following harvesting the property was exposed as a "large extent of flat nothingness." Yet all was not lost. "The second site visit got my heart racing with excitement," he said. "A property bordering the course gave me the feeling that something truly special could be created." To the southeast Ristola stumbled upon a 28 acre natural reserve of sand dunes, hillocks and hollows. The way forward for the Lingen extension suddenly became crystal clear - "To restore the barren farmland to a version of it's original beauty."

Test borings on the proposed golf course property revealed differing varieties of sand throughout, allowing Ristola to plan for extensive areas of exposed sand and sandy waste. Ristola made over 20 site visits during the concepting stage, during which time he recognized that the landscape of the Ems River valley is characterized by dunes land and that this simply had to be the cornerstone of the Lingen project. BUND, on the other hand, imagined a flat, close cropped fertilizer heaven with wall to wall monotone green. This was, to a degree a least, the result of the permitting work being carried out by a landscape architect with no golf experience. With hindsight, conflict was inevitable. Course construction began on a Tuesday and by the Friday BUND had called in the police and work was halted. A missing permit was finally granted and work recommenced in an atmosphere of hostile tension. Ristola can now laugh at the situation which confronted him, but at the time, "No one was happy; the club, contractors, BUND or myself." All interested parties met for a site visit and Herr ClausAlfes of BUND expressed his displeasure at the prospect of a "glorified graveyard" of flat, green ex-cornfield. It was here that Ristola made the breakthrough in communication. "I pointed to the eroded dunes on the nature reserve and explained that we would have vast expanses of open sand with grassy islands and native plantings. Alfes expressed his approval and I added that there would be more than he could possibly imagine." When, two weeks later, the stated intentions began to take shape physically, Alfes recognized that Ristola could be taken on his word. Thus a much healthier communication line was opened up and construction continued with the support of both the city authorities and BUND itself.

The process was both ecologically sound and cost sensitive. For example - earth movement. Due to the course's location in a flood control basin, any imported soil had to be matched, pound for pound, with exported soil. Only material necessary for greens and tees root zone was brought in. Thanks to the sandy nature of the soil, surface drainage was largely relied upon by contouring the fairways to drain into naturalized creeks, wetlands or off site - this largely negated the need for drainage tile. In fact only l km of drainage tile was required on the whole course with none on the greens or tees. Indeed the soil laboratory insisted that a layer of fine sand (found on a corner of the property) be used to prevent the greens from draining too quickly. The construction company itself bears mention, Matthai is one of Germany's larger construction companies specializing in civil engineering, they had never built a golf course before. Ristola viewed this as a positive aspect. "I told the club that the project was unique and that it was probably better that they had no experience," said Ristola. "They would have no preconceived notions and would not think twice when told to create a 4,000 square meter wasteland with islands. It was my responsibility to explain the step-by-step process. They quickly caught on and were probably fed up with my constant reminder; 'Kein strassenbau... bewegung!' (No road construction, I want motion!) The price was right too with the end product costing a little less than $1 million (US). At the end of May, 1998 the finishing touches were applied. BUND cited the following aspects as being crucial to their cooperation: that the new section of golf course has the dunes-like character of the Ems river banks; a wide corridor between the course and the reserve be left fallow; the underground pipe drainage be replaced with creek and wetland drainage system; that only native deciduous trees are planted; and that a 1.5 km public footpath should run through the new section. "We have to admit that the first discussions were held in a frosty, formal atmosphere," said BUND. "This changed when it became apparent that the golf course put a lot of emphasis on the design fitting in to the Ems river valley." "This change of view was accomplished by taking the time to explain the maintenance practices of the golf industry. The folks who have been doing the research and publishing the material (GCN), along with Audubon International's support of well designed and managed facilities are the ones who made this possible," added Ristola.