SHA yesterday and today
An architecture firm with a history
SHA is at home in Dortmund – and has been for over 90 years.
The foundations for our current work were laid in the heart of the Ruhr region in the 1920s.
Here you can find out more about the history and specialization of the office, which has been carrying out construction projects throughout Germany for decades.
1928 - 1962
A look back: the founding era
The year was 1928, when G. F. Schumm laid the foundation stone for our Dortmund architectural practice – in Kaiserstrasse in the heart of the city center. At that time, the focus was primarily on restaurant construction. An article published in 1939 in Baumeister issue 3, which was distributed throughout Germany, illustrates his work:
[…] We are now showing a restaurant in Dortmund, newly furnished by architect Schumm, which mainly consists of a large dining room with a beer bar, the so-called Schwemme, and a farmhouse parlor.
The relative lack of space is compensated for by the tasteful furnishings.
The floor is made of gray-black mosaic tiles, the walls and ceilings are plastered and lightly tinted.
The niches are tinted blue-grey and red-brown.
The wood used is brown-grey stained pine.
Chairs and tables are brown-grey stained beech with scrubbed maple tops.
Tinted and lightly colored antique glass is used for the glazing.
The murals depict historical events in the town of Rüthen, after which this Ratskeller is named.
The counter is clad with hand-molded, hand-painted, grey-blue Westerwald clay tiles. The clinker brick cladding of the columns and walls is kept in the same tone, enlivened by red brick slips. The lighting fixtures and the coat rack are made of black-fired wrought iron. The “Schwemme” is kept somewhat simpler: Floor in Solnhofen tiles, walls and ceilings – in felt plaster, light-colored, wall cladding red clinker tiles.
The “Bauernstube” has a black and red stone floor. The walls have roughcast, slightly tinted. The woodwork is larch, lightly stained and painted, and pine stained brown-grey. The beer barrels set up as drinking tables in the “Schwemme” are cozy and inviting.
The lighting fixtures have a very varied and imaginative design, always in keeping with the need to keep the chandeliers as flat as possible in the relatively low rooms. […]
from: Baumeister issue 3/1939
1962 - 2012
Second generation: Alois Scheffler
In 1962, the Scheffler family came onto the scene: G.F. Schumm’s architectural practice had already been in existence for 34 years when architect Alois Scheffler took it over. He had previously worked for Schumm.
Schumm himself went back to southern Germany near Heidelberg, where he had his roots. Alois Scheffler continued to run the office in Nußbaumweg in Dortmund-Wambel as an enthusiastic master builder in the restaurant sector.
In the years of the economic miracle, he planned and realized many apartment and multi-family houses. Even at the ripe old age of 97 (!), the die-hard Borussian never missed the chance to drop by the office once a week. However, he had already handed over the reins to his son Peter Scheffler in 1977.
Alois Scheffler, born in 1915 in Konitz, West Prussia, died in Dortmund in 2014.
1977 - 2016
Third generation: Peter Scheffler
Peter Scheffler always saw the projects in their wider context. After joining the company in 1972, he developed his father’s freelance architectural practice into a company, which he transformed into Scheffler Bauplan GmbH in 1997. With his passion and enjoyment of his profession, his exceptional customer loyalty and service orientation, he has laid the foundation for SHA’s success today. At the same time, he strategically aligned the office and focused primarily on the building materials trade, bicycle trade and commercial construction.
As a result, the company has accumulated an enormous amount of expert knowledge that is still useful to us today in our daily work. Peter Scheffler and his team also took the step beyond Dortmund and the Ruhr region and realized countless projects throughout Germany from the 1970s onwards.
Born in Waltershausen in 1944, Peter Scheffler died in Dortmund in 2016. We will continue our activities in his spirit.
Since 2003 - today
Fourth generation: Birgit and Christoph Helbich
SHA is now in its fourth generation. Christoph Helbich joined the company in 2003 and Birgit Helbich joined her father’s office in 2005. Both have enormous expertise in large-scale projects and sports facility construction from their previous activities. In 2005, Scheffler Bauplan GmbH was renamed Scheffler Helbich Architekten GmbH. Since then, SHA has gradually expanded its areas of expertise. Today, the office specializes in building materials trade, bicycle trade, sports facilities, commercial construction, administration, housing and urban development.
Not only the number of projects, but also the SHA team has grown significantly in recent years.
In order to ensure personal support from the management for every construction project, Volker Kaminsky, Jens Beele and Marc Horstmeier joined the management team in 2016 and Christoph Wunderlich joined in 2021 with power of attorney.
All of them have been working for SHA for many years and enjoy the full trust of employees and clients.
Since 2019, we have also been present in the capital and have opened an office in Berlin to expand our main location in Dortmund in order to be even more flexible in the planning and realization of our construction projects throughout Germany.
Another milestone in the company’s history is the construction of the PhoenixWERK, which has served as the headquarters since April 2020 and in which the two previous SHA locations in Dortmund, Aplerbeck and Schokoladenfabrik, have now been merged.
With tradition into the future – that is the maxim according to which we are continuing the SHA story from here.