 |
 |
 |
 |
Commerzbank Headquarters
Grosse Gallusstrasse 17-19, Frankfurt
1991 - 1997
The Commerzbank Tower is a skyscraper in downtown Frankfurt, designed by the renowned architect Sir Norman Foster. The tower is located on the Kaiserplatz square between the Grosse Gallusstraße and Kaiserstraße. The building originates from an idea competition, which was decided in favor of Foster + Partners in June 1991. The high-rise building reaches a structural height of 259 meters, including antenna the tower is even 300 meters high. Upon its completion in 1997, the Commerzbank Tower surpassed the Messeturm in Frankfurt with a height of 257 meters and became the tallest building in Europe. Only six years later, the Commerzbank Tower was surpassed by five metes by the Triumph Palace in Moscow. However, the Commerzbank Tower is still the tallest building in Germany. The 65-storey Commerzbank Tower has a gross floor area of 120,000 m² and a gross volume of 538,000 m³. In plan, the building forms an equilateral triangle with rounded corners and slightly convex side facades of about 60 m length. This façades enclose an impressive atrium, also of triangular shape with an edge length of 17 m edge and a height of 160 m. Unhappily, this atrium had to be divided by glass ceilings for reasons of fire protection. This atrium area is structured by nine internal theme gardens. These gardens, with an area of 450 m² and 15 m height, are staggered in a spiral-like succession. Each garden represents a different flora. The building in steel skeleton construction was constructed by the well-known general contractor Hochtief. A double façade full of high-tech allows ventilation with fresh air. Overall, an ecological approach was taken, which could reduce the demand for energy. So there are, for example, in the toilets no hot water for washing hands, and the distribution of documents and items of mail in the building will be done by an automatic document handling system to reduce the number of elevator rides. Because of the particularly innovative and sustainable construction, the building was awarded the Green Building Award of the City of Frankfurt am Main in 2009. In this tower, the headquarters of Commerzbank AG is accommodated, the boardrooms are located on the 47th and 48th floor. In the first six stories are among others the lobby, technology and security center. At the lowest level can be found a 1060 square meter publicly accessible catering area.