Roche Tower (german: Roche-Turm) is a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

in the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

city of

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

. At 178 metres, it is the second tallest building in the country. The building, also known as "Building 1" (german: Bau 1), was financed by pharmaceutical company

Hoffmann-La Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...

and designed by

Herzog & de Meuron Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd.,
" Herzog & de Meuron. Retrieved on 11 October 2012. "Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. R ...

. It cost 550 million

Swiss franc The Swiss franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is also legal tender in the Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia which is surrounded by Swiss territory. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issues banknotes and the f ...

s to build. The entire construction ensemble, including a planned 205-metre "Building 2" research facility, is expected to cost three billion francs in total. When finished on 18 September 2015, Roche Tower overtook

Prime Tower The Prime Tower, also named "Maag-Tower" in an earlier stage of planning, is a skyscraper in Zurich, Switzerland. At a height of , it was the highest skyscraper in Switzerland from 2011 until 2015, when the Roche Tower in Basel (standing at ) was ...

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

as Switzerland's tallest building, the latter having held the record for four years. Strict planning laws mean there are few skyscrapers in the country. For the construction of the building, measures against earthquakes were envisioned and it stands on 143 pillars of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

. It is supposed to endure an earthquake of 6.9 on the

Richter scale The Richter scale —also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale—is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and presented in his landmark 1935 ...

and therefore surpass the security regulations by the government.

References

External links

*
Official websiteInformation
at Basel.com {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Basel Skyscrapers in Switzerland Office buildings completed in 2015 Skyscraper office buildings