Located in the hill country between Austin and San Antonio, a 63-year-old local tradition transforms the town of New Braunfels into a bustling celebration of German heritage every year. WURSTFEST is an annual festival celebrated every November in New Braunfels, TX on several acres of land in Landa Park. In 2019, just days after the festival’s completion, a fire broke out within the festival grounds, destroying the iconic Marketplatz and Wursthalle buildings, and the devastation left the community reeling.
The festival grounds feature a variety of buildings, including the famous Wursthalle, a large 33,000 SF food and dance hall, and the 36,000 SF Marketplatz, which hosts a variety of German-inspired cuisine and attire. These facilities have become synonymous with the festival itself, with many associating Wursthalle and the Marketplatz with WURSTFEST itself. Wursthalle includes a German style beer hall atmosphere, complete with a stage and long tables. The Marketplatz, located outside of Wursthalle, features a variety of vendor booths styled as a small German market.
The City of New Braunfels and its surrounding communities began rebuilding the facilities after the news of the devastation was announced. Due to the extensive damage, the reconstruction project required multiple phases and consultants for both structures. M&S Engineering, who had already been selected as an Electrical contractor for the renovation of the Marketplatz, tapped Cleary Zimmermann Engineers (CZ) to head the Mechanical and Plumbing services. For the first time in the event’s history, the 2020 festival was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and the damage caused by the fires. This cancellation provided the Byrne Construction/Marmon Mok design-build team more time to address the damage at the site.
This project required extensive coordination to address stakeholder needs, code compliance issues, and community concerns. WURSTFEST owns the Marketplatz but leases out all the stalls to individual concessionaires. Cleary Zimmermann’s Principal-in-Charge, Thomas Watson, PE, coordinated with all vendors during design to ensure each vendor had the necessary mechanical and plumbing features. Exhaust fans were provided in each vendor’s stall to help ease hot air/exhaust from the vendors and correct the stalls’ gas utilization. The entire Marketplatz, while previously grandfathered in, needed to be brought up to code. Another concern for the site was the grease and runoff from Marketplatz getting into the city’s surrounding rivers. Many Marketplatz vendors provide some type of food or drink, and CZ designed a system where grease and runoff could be collected in one place. A heating system for the hot water supply was also added to encourage redundancy to the system and make it more efficient.
WURSTFEST resumed for its 60th anniversary in November of 2021, with more than 240,000 visitors. WURSTFEST continues to draw visitors from all over the country for its week-long celebration in the heart of the Texas Hill Country.
