Messeturm

The fair tower (own spelling: Fair Tower ) is a skyscraper in the Westend of Frankfurt am Main. With a height of 256.5 meters, it was the tallest building in Europe when completed in 1991. In 1997, the fair tower had this item at the Frankfurt Commerzbank Tower leave, but which is now in turn surpassed by higher skyscrapers.

Location

The name is derived from the trade fair tower location at the Friedrich -Ebert-Anlage immediately adjacent to the City entrance to the fairgrounds. He is, however, outside the exhibition grounds and is not used for trade shows.

The fair tower is often mistakenly locates in the Gallus district, as the Friedrich- Ebert-Anlage is considered to be perceived boundary between the districts of Gallus and Westend, actually heard the entire eastern fairgrounds to the S -Bahn to the district Westend- Süd.

Planning and construction

As 1985, Messe Frankfurt an architectural competition, with the aim to create a new office tower that was to be the symbol of the fair. The Chicago-based architecture firm Murphy / Jahn was eventually charged with the creation of this project. Tishman Speyer Properties was appointed by Messe Frankfurt in order to lead the ambitious project into a functional and profitable result. Tishman Speyer Properties, which have the building built as investment company together with Citibank, came to the conclusion that significant savings and performance improvements can be achieved by a redesign of the structural, mechanical, electrical, and other elements of the elevator system. Within 27 months a completely new construction plan was made, so that in July 1988 could be started with the construction of the Frankfurt Fair Tower. Because the downtown area near Westend was already densely built, there was only a very small area, about the size of two tennis courts, available for the site equipment. Even before the completion of works covered in the lower part of building a first tenant.

With an overall height of 257 meters, the tower offers 63,000 square feet of office space, of which 61 711 square meters of floor space. The pyramid on the roof is 36.6 meters high. The tower is a complete reinforced concrete structure, the tower core with elevator shafts and stairwells was made ​​with a sliding form in 24-hour shifts. The top of the pyramid contains parts of the building services and is not accessible for tenants and the public. It is evening and at night lit and very good landing at Frankfurt Airport recognizable.

The public parking garage of the trade fair tower has room for 900 parking spaces. Also direct access to the subway station Festhalle / Messe underground Frankfurt is present. The construction costs of the exhibition tower amounted to about 500 million DM The building has 24 passenger lifts to transport the 4,000 people working there to their jobs. The floor area is 41 meters by 41 meters.

Until 1997, the fair tower was the tallest building in Europe, he was replaced by the also standing in Frankfurt Commerzbank Tower. Frankfurt's landmark it is today.

On the Architecture

Architecturally, its shape particularly emphasizes. Like a pencil he soars into the sky, which is why he is called by the inhabitants of Frankfurt also " pencil ". The architect Helmut Jahn based his design at the Art Deco skyscrapers of the 1930s and the controversial design for the Campanile in 1983 by Hans Robert Hiegel. The facade is made of polished red granite. In the forms of Art Deco and with the resources of the art of the tower for prosperity, innovation and creativity should be. Clearly visible is the classic division into base, the tower shaft and tip. From the square base of the tower shaft grows initially with a square floor plan, then with drawn corners. The cylinder of the upper tower section goes into the three-story pyramid of the spire.

Construction

The building is a reinforced concrete structure. The load transfer of horizontal loads, such as the wind carried over the wall plates of the elevators and stairwells in the core and the peripheral perforated facade. The center distance of the facade columns is 3.6 meters at one meter width columns. On the ground floor the entire perforated facade is removed via four prestressed Abfangriegel on four corner brackets and eight external columns. The normal floor ceilings are 24 -inch-thick flat slabs. The skyscraper has 58.8 meters edge length a 3460 -square-foot square base plate, which is six feet thick in the middle and tapers to the edges to three meters. The plate with a concrete quantity of 17,000 cubic meters was cast in one piece within 72 hours. Under the foundation plate 64 bored piles with 1.3 m diameter and a length arranged up to 34.9 meters ( pile - raft foundation ). The foundation depth is approximately 14 meters below ground level.

Change of ownership

On 14 February 2002 a European financial consortium bought the Frankfurt trade fair tower at a not explicitly mentioned price but financial experts settle in the high three -digit million euro range. They acquired a majority stake of 85 per cent of the skyscraper. Sellers were Japanese financiers and the American Real Estate Group Tishman Speyer Properties. This transaction was structured and carried out of the real estate management company GLL Real Estate Partners and Westwind Capital Partners. The subsidiary of GLL Real Estate Partners, GLL Property Management has also taken over the management of the Exhibition Tower on June 1, 2006. Behind these companies are large investors, such as insurance group Generali, the international property group Lend Lease as well as the real estate investment group KanAm. The Japanese construction company Kajima will continue its 15 percent interest in the fair tower.

The sale of the Exhibition Tower in the first quarter of 2002 was after publication of the investors participating companies a consequence of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. Since that time, all objects are to be insured with landmark character separately against terrorist activities. The tower was fair, according to KanAm one of the first skyscrapers, which was sold after the attack in New York.

The exhibition tower and the consequences of 11 September

After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York numerous skyscrapers were at 19:51 clock the same day in Germany found and evacuated under special protection, as well as the fair tower. The Hessian state government recommended that all " iconic skyscrapers " to close in Frankfurt. These included the exhibition tower and the Commerzbank Tower, the German bank skyscraper and the Euro Tower as the seat of the European Central Bank. The next day, all high-rise buildings were open as normal again in Frankfurt around 8:30 clock.

Due to an anonymous bomb threat to the fair tower on September 12 was cleared at 9:37 clock again. At 10:41 clock, the building was re- released after the security forces had given the all clear.

On 5 January 2003, a 31- year-old man seized on a motor glider and circled for two hours over downtown. The man had threatened after the start in Babenhausen at 14:55 clock, among other things, to control the machine in the high-rise building of the European Central Bank. Several buildings in the city, including the fair tower, has subsequently been evacuated as a precaution.

Use of the tower

The Frankfurt Fair Tower 's construction, facilities and location one of the outstanding and most valuable office real estate in Germany with a number of prestigious and affluent tenants. According to the Munich-based issuing house KanAm the skyscraper was hired in November 2006 to 71 percent. The main tenants are Goldman Sachs and Thomson Reuters. Since 2009, the Japanese Consulate General is located on the 34th floor, after they had to leave the Japan Center.

More

The construction of the Exhibition Tower resembles that of the high-rise building Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta. The fair tower is not open to the public and has no observation deck. The entire building was cordoned off during the football World Cup in 2006 for safety reasons.

The fair tower is next to the Opera Tower and the Squaire, also in Frankfurt, and the Schneefernerhaus on the Zugspitze is one of four buildings in Germany with its own postal code ( " 60308 ").

Before the fair tower stands about 25 meters high, the moving sculpture Hammering Man by Jonathan Borofsky that represents the silhouette of a worker.