Opernturm: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:40, 6 January 2011

Revision as of 23:45, 6 January 2011

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The '''OpernTurm''' is a skyscraper in [[Frankfurt]], [[Germany]]. The property is situated opposite [[Alte Oper]] on the corner of Bockenheimer Landstrasse and Bockenheimer Anlage. The architectbuilding ofwas thedesigned tower is Professorby Christoph Mäckler. The project developer iswas Tishman Speyer, a US firm that previously built the [[Sony Center]] in [[Berlin]] and the [[MesseTurm]] in Frankfurt. UBS AG is the main tenant.

== Design ==

The OpernTurm consists of a 170-m high-rise building (42 floors) and an approximately 26-m low-rise podium building (7 floors) facing towards the Alte Oper. Access is through an 18 meter high lobby. The yellow-beige stone cladding of the facades fits in harmoniously with the existing buildings surrounding Opera SquareOpernplatz. Designed to consume 23 percent less energy than stipulated by Germany's 2007 EnEV Energy Regulation, the OpernTurm was one of the first office buildings in Europe to be certified to the LEED Gold standard (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

The site was previously occupied by one of Frankfurt's first high-rise buildings, the 68 m tall Zürich Tower (''Zürich-Haus'') built in 1962. In 1998, Zürich Versicherung, the owner of the building, commissioned Christoph Mäckler's firm to design a new building that would be 22 m taller in order to maximize land use. When the initially proposed building was felt to be rather bulky, Zürich Versicherung suggested to the local government to build the new tower up to a height of 160 m and to compensate for the added height by making available company-owned land to extend the adjacent Rothschildpark down to Bockenheimer Landstrasse. The local government eventually agreed but Zürich Versicherung did not go ahead with the development and sold the now empty site -- the old tower had been demolished in 2002 -- to project developer Tishman Speyer in July 2004.