That Frankfurt am Main is the German high-rise city, that’s nothing new. But now there’s an attempt to also transform it into a “housing high-rise town”. Spectacular new buildings include the “Henninger Turm”, the “Grand Tower” and the “Omniturm”, probably better known as BIG Tower. BIG, or Bjarke Ingels Groep, who were not selected by the much-criticized competition of the Henninger Turm, will now bring a “hula hoop swing” to the narrow high-rise ravine of the Neue Mainzer Landstraße. Not only the form but also the content is special: offices below and apartments above, with terraces even. This is already the 4th new tower in Frankfurt by Tischman Speyer investors of New York. For some people it proves that Manhattan is the criteria for “Mainhattan”, as Frankfurt sometimes is called.

On the Sachsenhäuser Berg (exaggerated name for the hill on the south of Frankfurt), the new Henninger Tower rises up in height and a little bit over in the entry lane of the airport. Meixner Schlüter Wendt architects deliberately decided to keep the silhouette of this Frankfurt landmark, tearing down the old brewery silo-tower and rebuilding it with similar dimensions as a housing tower. The dot on the “i” will once again be a restaurant on top of the building.

As the highest housing tower in Germany, the “Grand Tower” grows to a height of 160 m in the Frankfurt “Europaviertel” (European Quarter). With prices of 19,000 €/m², the Frankfurt press is worried about a housing bubble. The comb-glass-façade will be a welcome variety in Frankfurt, where a lot of buildings are covered with natural stone, which ultimately look likes colored concrete.

In the neighborhood along de Europaallee, there are some not-that-high-rise-buildings with a height of 70 m. In the western “High-end”, the Westside Tower (Meyer Schmitz-Morkramer architects) and the high-rise Tower Axis (Meixner Schlüter Wendt architects) are ready. In the middle of Europaallee, the “Praedium” housing tower (Dietz Joppien architects) is under construction, and the first cut of the spade is expected for the Porsche Design Tower (Blauram Architekten).

Summary: the new towers bring architectural variety to Frankfurt, but in their shadow it seems impossible that social housing will grow.

Text by: Guiding Architects Frankfurt — Paul-Martin Lied

www.dam-online.de
www.henninger-turm.com
www.axis-frankfurt.de
www.grandtower-frankfurt.com
www.westside-tower.de
www.praedium-frankfurt.de
www.porsche-design-tower-frankfurt.com
www.big.dk
www.kaminiarz-cie.de
www.meixner-schlueter-wendt.de
www.msm-architecture.com
www.dietz-joppien.de
www.blauraum.eu