The Swissmill Tower, also known as Kornhaus, is the tallest operating

grain elevator A grain elevator is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits ...

in the world. Standing at , it is the second tallest building in the Swiss city of

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 ...

History and description

The Swissmill Tower is a

close to ''Limmatplatz'' in

. It was built near the

Migros Migros () is Switzerland's largest retail company, its largest supermarket chain and largest employer. It is also one of the forty largest retailers in the world. It is structured in the form of a cooperative federation (the Federation of Mig ...

Tower, replacing a former grain elevator after the city voted in favor of building a larger silo. The original mill (''Kornhaus'') was built in 1843 on the same site. The site required piles built to a depth of in the bedrock of the

Limmat Valley The Limmat Valley (German: ''Limmattal'') is a river valley and a region in the cantons of Zürich and Aargau in Switzerland. Geography The Limmat () is a long river located in the cantons of Zürich (ZH) and Aargau (AG). It is the c ...

. The increase of its height to was done by

slipforming Slip forming, continuous poured, continuously formed, or slipform construction is a construction method in which concrete is poured into a continuously moving form.Nawy, ''Concrete Construction Engineering Handbook,'' 2008, p. 10—33. Slip formi ...

. This required as many as 60 construction workers processing concrete in three shifts around the clock. The construction took place in two stages. The first phase was completed in early July 2015. The second began in September 2015, and end in April 2016. Mill operations continued during construction. The works were carried out by

Implenia Implenia is a Swiss construction and construction services company. Implenia, with its headquarters in Opfikon near Zurich, employs more than 8,000 people in Europe and posted revenue of CHF 3.8 billion in 2021. History Implenia was created o ...

. Adlisberg - Pfannenstiel - Zürichsee - Albis-Zimmerberg - Zürich-City - Limmattal - Käferberg-Waidspital 2016-05-17 19-13-55.JPG, Location of the Swissmill Tower in the upper

as seen from

Käferberg Käferberg (el. ) and Waidberg (el. ) are the summits of a wooded mountain respectively chain of hills overlooking the inner city of Zürich, Zürichsee, Albis chain and Uetliberg, as well as the Limmat Valley and the Zürcher Unterland in Switze ...

Limmat - Swissmill Tower Zürich & Migros-Hochhaus - Käferberg-Waidspital 2016-05-17 19-07-02.JPG,

Significance

At , the Swissmill Tower is the tallest operating

in the world. The second tallest, the

Schapfen Mill Tower The Schapfen-Mill-Tower is a tall silo tower near Ulm, Germany. Schapfen-Mill-Tower started construction in 2004 and was completed in 2005. It was the tallest operational grain elevator for a time following the demolition of Henninger Turm in ...

Ulm, Germany Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

, is tall excluding the antenna. The tallest grain elevator ever constructed, the

Henninger Turm Henninger Turm (Henninger Tower) was a grain storage silo located in the Sachsenhausen (Frankfurt am Main), Sachsenhausen-Süd district of Frankfurt, Germany. It was built by Henninger Brewery (now part of the Dr. Oetker#Binding Brauerei, Binding ...

, stood and was demolished in 2013. The Swissmill Tower can store 40,000 tonnes of grain."La « La tour-silo » de Zurich"
(page visited on 22 March 2020). Swissmill is the largest mill company in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, processing 800 tons of grain daily. This represents 30% of the Swiss national grain requirements. It supplies flour for Swiss retailers

Coop Coop, COOP, Co-op, or ''variation'', most often refers to: * A chicken coop or other enclosure * Cooperative or co-operative ("co-op"), an association of persons who cooperate for their mutual social, economic, and cultural benefit ** Housing co ...

, Volg and Landi. Critics have said the silo's exterior and height are overly industrial. However, municipal authorities say that the silo was intentionally designed in that way. Its external appearance is intended to express its interior – an industrial plant. In July 2016, there was a proposal to cover the tower's exterior with plants, in response to a request by Zürich politicians to redo the facade. Architect Miriam Vázquez suggested this during the planning phase, but later deemed it too expensive.

References

External links

{{Commons category, Swissmill Tower Towers in Switzerland Commercial buildings completed in 2016 2016 establishments in Switzerland Buildings and structures in Zürich Grain elevators Agricultural buildings in Switzerland