All Topics  
Commerzbank Tower

 
Commerzbank Tower

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Commerzbank Tower
 
 
  Topics Commerzbank Tower Topic Home

Commerzbank Tower is a skyscraper
Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building. There is no official definition nor height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper....
 located in the city centre of Frankfurt
Frankfurt

is the largest city in the German States of Germany of Hesse and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
. After it was completed in 1997 it ranked as the tallest building in Europe
List of tallest buildings in Europe

File:Birmingham -UK -Skyline.jpgThis list of tallest buildings in Europe ranks skyscrapers in Europe by height. While skyscrapers remain sparser in Europe than in Asia or the North America, a significant number of cities still distinguish themselves by the number of highrise buildings they host....
 until 2005 when it was surpassed by the Triumph-Palace
Triumph-Palace

Triumph-Palace is the name of an apartment building in Moscow. It is sometimes called the 8th Tower because it is similar in appearance to the Seven Sisters skyscrapers built in Moscow by Stalin through the 1950s....
 in Moscow
Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
. The tower is only two metres taller than the MesseTurm
Messeturm

Messeturm is a well-known skyscraper in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Its name translates as "Fair Tower" in German language. It is the List of tallest buildings in Germany and the also the List of tallest buildings in the European Union....
 which is also located in Frankfurt. The MesseTurm was the tallest building in Europe before the construction of the Commerzbank Tower.

With a height of , 56 stories, it provides 121,000 m² (1.3 million square feet) of office space for the Commerzbank
Commerzbank

Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft is the second-largest bank in Germany, after Deutsche Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt.Commerzbank is mainly active in commercial banking, retail banking and mortgaging....
 headquarters, including winter gardens and natural lighting and air circulation.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Commerzbank Tower'
Start a new discussion about 'Commerzbank Tower'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Commerzbank Tower is a skyscraper
Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building. There is no official definition nor height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper....
 located in the city centre of Frankfurt
Frankfurt

is the largest city in the German States of Germany of Hesse and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000....
, Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
. After it was completed in 1997 it ranked as the tallest building in Europe
List of tallest buildings in Europe

File:Birmingham -UK -Skyline.jpgThis list of tallest buildings in Europe ranks skyscrapers in Europe by height. While skyscrapers remain sparser in Europe than in Asia or the North America, a significant number of cities still distinguish themselves by the number of highrise buildings they host....
 until 2005 when it was surpassed by the Triumph-Palace
Triumph-Palace

Triumph-Palace is the name of an apartment building in Moscow. It is sometimes called the 8th Tower because it is similar in appearance to the Seven Sisters skyscrapers built in Moscow by Stalin through the 1950s....
 in Moscow
Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
. The tower is only two metres taller than the MesseTurm
Messeturm

Messeturm is a well-known skyscraper in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Its name translates as "Fair Tower" in German language. It is the List of tallest buildings in Germany and the also the List of tallest buildings in the European Union....
 which is also located in Frankfurt. The MesseTurm was the tallest building in Europe before the construction of the Commerzbank Tower.

With a height of , 56 stories, it provides 121,000 m² (1.3 million square feet) of office space for the Commerzbank
Commerzbank

Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft is the second-largest bank in Germany, after Deutsche Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt.Commerzbank is mainly active in commercial banking, retail banking and mortgaging....
 headquarters, including winter gardens and natural lighting and air circulation. The signal light on top of the tower gives the tower a total height of .

In its immediate neighbourhood are other high-rise buildings including the Eurotower (home of the European Central Bank
European Central Bank

The European Central Bank is one of the world's most important central banks, responsible for monetary policy covering the 16 member States of the Eurozone....
), the Maintower
Maintower

Maintower is a 200 metre skyscraper in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is named after the Main. A 40 metre telecommunication tower is mounted atop the building....
, the Silver Tower, the Japan Center and the Gallileo skyscraper. The area is commonly known as Bankenviertel
Bankenviertel (Frankfurt am Main)

File:Skyline-sued-ffm004.jpgFile:Innenstadtpanorama-ffm002.jpgThe Bankenviertel is an area in the city centre of Frankfurt, Germany.It is not an official city district but it is a commonly used designation to describe the not exactly defined area where most of Germanys major banks have their headquarters and where many foreign banks hav...
 (banking district or financial district).

It was designed by Foster & Partners
Foster and Partners

Foster + Partners is a leading architectural firm based in the United Kingdom. The practice is led by its founder and Chairman, Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, and has constructed many high-profile glass-and-steel buildings....
, with Arup
Arup

Arup is a professional services firm providing engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment....
 and Krebs & Kiefer (structural engineering
Structural engineering

Structural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist structural loads. Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right....
), J. Roger Preston with P&A Petterson Ahrens (mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering

Mechanical Engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the application of physics#branches of physics for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of machine....
), Schad & Hölzel (electrical engineering
Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism....
). Construction of the building began in 1994 and took three years to complete.

The building is illuminated at night by a yellow light scheme which was designed by Thomas Ende who was allowed to display this sequence as a result of a competition.

Features

When the building was planned in the early 1990s Frankfurt's Green Party, who governed the city together with the Social Democratic Party, encouraged the Commerzbank to design a 'green' skyscraper. The result was the world's first so-called ecological skyscraper: besides the use of 'sky-gardens' environmental- friendly technologies were employed to reduce energy required for heating and cooling.

Sky gardens

The Commerzbank Tower is shaped as a wide rounded equilateral triangle with a central, triangular atrium. At nine different levels, the atrium opens up to one of the three sides, forming large sky gardens. These open areas allow more natural light in the building, reducing the need for artificial lighting. At the same time it ensures offices in the building's two other sides have a view of either the city or the garden.

In order to eliminate the need of supporting columns in the sky gardens, the building was constructed in steel instead of the conventional (and cheaper) concrete. It was the first skyscraper in Germany where steel was used as the main construction material.

In popular culture

  • Commerzbank Tower appears in the Euro Contemporary tileset in SimCity 4
    SimCity 4

    SimCity 4 is a city-building game Construction and management simulation games Personal computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts....
     (Deluxe or with Rush Hour).
  • In 2007, Wrebbit released a 3D puzzle from the Towers Made To Scale Collection, which includes the Commerzbank Tower and the MesseTurm in one box-set.


See also

  • List of skyscrapers
  • List of tallest buildings in the European Union
    List of tallest buildings in the European Union

    Sorry, no overview for this topic
  • History of Germany
    History of Germany

    Despite the lack of a German nation state before 1871, the countrydates back to the era of the Germanic tribes. Following the migration period, the Franks subsequently subdued the West Germanic tribes, who made up for most of East Francia after the Frankish Empire fell apart....
  • List of tallest buildings in Frankfurt
    List of tallest buildings in Frankfurt

    This list of tallest buildings in Frankfurt ranks skyscrapers and high-rises in the city of Frankfurt, Germany by height. The tallest structure in Frankfurt is the Europaturm, which rises ....


External links