Description

Neue Mainzer Straße, which runs through the heart of Frankfurt’s banking district, is probably the street in Europe most reminiscent of the skyscraper canyons of New York. The intersection of Neue Mainzer Straße and Große Gallusstraße is also unique in Germany in that all four corners are occupied by skyscrapers that extend more than 100 metres into the sky. These, in turn, exemplify the history of high-rise building in Frankfurt. The oldest tower is the bronze-coloured, former Commerzbank high-rise (109 m) by Richard Heil from 1973, which belongs to the city’s first generation of high-rises. It is an architectural representative of the so-called “boxes” that went on to start the housing war in Frankfurt’s Westend. To the northwest, opposite, Ganz + Rolfes planned the Japan Center (115 m) in the mid-1990s, an Asian-inspired high-rise with a red granite façade whose restaurant under the roof is one of the first tentative attempts at incorporating a public use. At the next corner, the American investor Tishman Speyer built the Taunus Tower (170 m) to a design by Gruber + Kleine-Kraneburg in 2014. The tower with its vertically accentuated façade of glass and light-coloured sandstone is part of an ensemble: a lower neighbouring building houses flats and exhibition spaces for the Museum of Modern Art.

In 2020, a fourth high-rise is nearing completion: the 185-metre-high Omniturm designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). It is also the fourth high-rise to be built by Tishman Speyer in Frankfurt – after the Messeturm by Helmut Jahn (1991), the Opernturm by Christoph Mäckler (2010) and the Taunusturm by Gruber + Kleine-Kraneburg. The city’s intention to introduce more vibrancy to the banking district has also culminated in the Omniturm project being Germany’s first mixed-use high-rise. The ground and lower floors are public accessible, and above them are offices, residential floors and again more offices. This change of function is legible in the building’s sculptural “hip swing” mid-way up the tower. Inside the flats on the 15th to 22nd floors, it is also visible in the building structure: massive, slanted columns exude constructivist charm on the one hand, and on the other hand create a headache for the residents when furnishing.

The first two floors are taller and jump back and forth to provide terraces for public use. The residential floors just below the centre of the tower push outwards from the main column of the building in a spiral movement that follows the path of the sun. The “hip swing” breaks up the uniformity of the otherwise rather static tower, lending it a sense of lightness and dynamism. At the same time, it marks a turning point in Frankfurt’s banking district, which was previously characterised by monotonous office use. The lateral shift of the storeys creates narrow outdoor spaces for the residents that are for their own use but also offer little privacy, although they provide impressive views down the “Bankenklamm” (bank canyon) of the Neue Mainzer Straße – at least for those residents on the floors that shift outwards on that side. The upper “torso” of the high-rise is then used exclusively for offices and the floor plan can be varied flexibly as on the lower office floors.

The base of the tower is open to the public and the intention is that it functions as an extension of the urban situation at the base of the four neighbouring towers. Unlike the Taunus Tower, the foyer eschews grand gestures, spacious, light-filled spaces and noble materials in favour of cool elegance. The public areas of the Omniturm offer particularly high, column-free spaces for coworking areas, a cafeteria and a space for events. This interaction between private and public space was agreed with the city during the design phase. The high-rise also aims to achieve a level of (business) diversity by providing office space for a mixture of classic office tenants and smaller start-ups.

Originally published in Bauwelt 16.2020, pp. 20-26, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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