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| UNSTUDIO/BEN VAN BERKEL’S DESIGN SELECTED FOR NEW HOTEL TOWER IN FRANKFURT
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June 8, 2009
 UNStudio was selected in the competition for a 110 meter tall hotel tower.
From the six projects presented, the jury, chaired by Prof. Johann Eisele, chose the designs by UNStudio - Ben van Berkel (Amsterdam), and Kohn, Pedersen, Fox (New York) and recommended proceeding with the UNStudio design for further development.
According to Ben van Berkel the design for the Grand Hyatt tower celebrates and highlights the cosmopolitan character and diversity of Frankfurt. "It has three different elevations that are linked to the different aspects of the city. The tower takes up the variation and diversity offered by the city of Frankfurt and reflects that multiplicity of experiences back to the city itself. The tower can be perceived differently from each perspective; it appears needle-thin from one spot, strong and straight from another, and complex with a slight twist from yet another."
The new tower will house a 5-star-plus hotel with 405 rooms and suites, a ballroom, spa, various restaurants, a lobby bar and a public Sky Lounge on the top floor, and the possibility of an adjacent congress center. The hotel tower consists of 22 floors at a height of approximately 110 metres and an area of 54,562.70 m2 for hotel tower + plinth.
The new hotel will be located opposite the currently emerging high-rise office Tower 185. The first building to be realized in Frankfurt's Europaviertel was the Mövenpick Hotel. Along with a number of apartments and office buildings a second hotel, the Meininger Hotel, is currently under construction.
As part of a multiple assignment, six architects presented their ideas for the approximately 110-meter-high hotel tower. Other offices which presented their designs were Ingenhoven Architects (Dusseldorf), JSK Architects (Frankfurt), Lederer, Ragnarsdottir, Oei (Stuttgart) and Reichel Stauth + Architects (Brunswick). The jury consisted of: Stadtrat Edwin Black (City of Frankfurt), Bernhard H. Hansen (Vivico), Prof. Jochem Jourdan (Jourdan & Müller PAS), Prof. Uwe Frerichs (Bielefeld University), Anne Geier Mann (Hyatt) and Matthias Lowin (Viador).
The jury chairman Prof. Eisele pointed out: "All the proposals were of an exceptionally high standard. The award-winning designs by UNStudio and Kohn, Pedersen Fox are particularly outstanding as they present a type of high-rise which does not yet exist in this form in Frankfurt. The contribution by UNStudio demonstrates how harmony can be created between extensive functional demands and the high requirements of exterior and interior design."
According to Mr. Schwarz Stadtrat the designs are very well integrated into the urban planning of the new neighborhood: "With this exceptional high-rise the new project will provide the entrance area of the Europe district with a very visible accent."
Bernhard H. Hansen said: "An architectural language has been found that responds to the high demands of the Grand Hyatt account whilst simultaneously integrating perfectly into the neighborhood."
The new Grand Hyatt, as part of the ensemble Skyline Plaza, marks the entrance of the Europe Allee, with its impact stretching along Oslo street in a North-South direction. With the new hotel tower, 1,000 beds of different categories will be available in the Europe District. The Europe District is growing rapidly: the first residential building will be completed in spring 2009, with two more to follow in 2010. Overall, in the first phase approximately 780 houses are planned. The construction of the first office building, headquarters of the Germany bank BNP Paribas, started in the autumn of 2008 and will be realized mid-2010. The four-star Mövenpick Hotel Frankfurt City was realized in 2006. In February 2008 Vivico closed a lease contract with the Berlin hotel group Meininger. The new hotel at the entrance of the Torhause is also already under construction and will be opened in 2010.
At the entrance of the European quarter, at the Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage, Vivico has been building the Tower 185 since September 2008; the first skyscraper at this location. Before construction began Vivico closed a contract for approximately 60,000 m² of rental space with the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Credits: Drawing courtesy by UNStudio |
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