"The new European Central Bank Headquarters in Frankfurt has the potential to become a new, widely seen icon as an addition to the Frankfurt skyline.
The design's starting point was a research on urban sights from and to the Frankfurt city. As a characteristic icon we sketched a double slab tower in a polygonal form. The tower's striking profile can be seen from all the important places in downtown Frankfurt (Opera, Museumsufer, Banking District) and from the river Main. Due to their form and presence the twin towers will become a distinctive mark in the Frankfurt skyline.
We highlight the extraordinary significance of the existing Grossmarkthalle by adding a horizontal structure housing the Conference and IT Center. In the local urban context the double horizontal structures connect with the vertical diagonal cut of the atrium of the towers thus creating a Vertical City and connecting the ECB with the larger urban context of the Frankfurt skyline. Thus we leave the existing Grossmarkthalle untouched and provide a prominent view of the river's strong horizontal orientation as well as a functional connection to the already existing building for the new Conference and IT Center." - Coop Himmelblau (http://www.coop-himmelblau.at)
Site Area: 120.000 m2 Floor Area: 115.000 m2 Built-up Area: 205.000 m2 Cubage: 766.000 m3
Client: ECB - European Central Bank, Frankfurt/M., Germany
Structural Engineering: Bollinger + Grohmann, Frankfurt, Germany; Klaus Bollinger, Arne Künstler
Keywords: Germany, Bradenburg, commercial structures. Submitted by Coop Himmelblau for 2005 KSA Spring Lecture Series.
