![FRA fernbf2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/FRA_fernbf2.jpg)
The Squaire is an office building in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, Germany. It was built between 2006 and 2011 on top of an existing train station (
Frankfurt Airport long-distance station
Frankfurt am Main Airport long-distance station (german: Frankfurt am Main Flughafen Fernbahnhof) is a railway station at Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, Germany. It is served by long-distance trains, mostly ICE services running on the C ...
) near
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
. The building is 660 m long, 65 m wide, 45 m high, and has nine floors. With a total floor area of it is the largest office building in Germany.
[''DB Schenker entscheidet sich gegen IVG''. ]Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...
, Nr. 46, 24 February 2011, p.15. Its dimensions and design make it a
groundscraper
A groundscraper is a large building that has relatively few stories but which greatly extends horizontally.
Definition
MSN Encarta defines ''groundscraper'' as "a large low or medium-rise building, typically containing offices, that spreads hori ...
. The Squaire is directly connected to Terminal 1 of
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
through a pedestrian connecting corridor.
Name
The term ''Squaire'' is a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[square
In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...](_blank)
'' and ''air''. The name was announced in June 2010. The project's original name was ''Airrail Center Frankfurt''. The term ''Airrail'' is a compound of the words ''air'' and ''
rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
''.
Location and connections
The Squaire is located between two motorways, the
Bundesautobahn 3
is an autobahn in Germany running from the Germany-Netherlands border near Wesel in the northwest to the Germany-Austria border near Passau.
Major cities along its total length of 778 km (483 mi) include Oberhausen, Duisburg, Düsse ...
and the Bundesstraße 43, close to one of the most heavily used
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
interchanges in Europe, the
Frankfurter Kreuz
The Frankfurter Kreuz (''Frankfurt Junction'') is an Autobahn interchange in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where the autobahns A3 and A5 meet. The interchange was originally to be built from 1931 to 1933, but due to World War II construction was ...
. The building provides direct access to the train station below with 210 daily long-distance train connections, of which 185 are
ICE
Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...
trains. A connecting bridge provides access to the airport terminals as well as to the
Frankfurt Airport regional station
Frankfurt (Main) Airport regional station (german: Frankfurt (Main) Flughafen Regionalbahnhof) is an underground railway station at Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, Germany. It provides local S-Bahn and '' Regionalbahn'' services to the city and t ...
.
The Squaire is connected to a
multistorey car park
A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...
to the west by a
people mover
A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. ...
called ''MiniMetro'' operating high above the highway driveways.
History
When
Deutsche Bahn
The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder.
describes itself as the se ...
announced plans to build a fast rail link between
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
and Frankfurt (
Cologne–Frankfurt high-speed rail line
The Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed railway (german: Schnellfahrstrecke Köln–Rhein/Main) is a railway line in Germany, connecting the cities of Cologne and Frankfurt. Its route follows the Bundesautobahn 3 for the greater part, and currently the ...
) it planned for a second train station at Frankfurt Airport because it was clear that the existing train station would not be able to handle the predicted traffic. Construction work for a new train station close to the airport grounds started in 1995 and was finished in 1999. With a glass dome on top, it was designed to allow the later construction of an office building.
Preparatory construction work on the office building started in November 2006 based on a design by the Frankfurt based architecture firm
JSK. The main investor of the project is the
IVG Immobilien
IVG Immobilien (formerly known as IndustrieVerwaltungsGesellschaft mbH) is a German real estate company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is a leading commercial property owner in Germany and other European countries.
Activities
The core busi ...
AG in Bonn.
Due to lack of potential tenants the plans were delayed several years until 2006 when the construction of the building, then called ''Airrail Center Frankfurt'', began with an announced opening day in 2010. The foundation stone was laid on March 1, 2007.
[''Airrail Center auf der ''Platte'' soll bis Ende 2009 fertig sein'' in ''Treffpunkt'' (Kundenzeitschrift der Flughafengesellschaft), Ausgabe 2/2007.] Planned construction costs were 660 million
Euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
. Trouble with the construction company and the use of bad construction steel imported from China, which had to be replaced, pushed the costs up to 1 billion Euro. In June 2010 the name was changed to ''The Squaire''. The main tenants' move-in took place in sections, beginning in April 2011, until December 2011.
Tenants
The
accounting firm KPMG
KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations.
Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
, two
Hilton hotels
Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton.
The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...
, and
Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...
occupy space in The Squaire. KPMG has rented 40,000 square metres of office space with 2,150 staff members. In the eastern part are two
Hilton hotels: Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport
[https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/fraapgi-hilton-garden-inn-frankfurt-airport/ Official website] with 334 rooms and the
Hilton Frankfurt Airport
Hilton Frankfurt Airport is a four-star hotel, located in the groundscraper The Squaire in Frankfurt, Germany. The hotel was officially opened in December 2011 and is part of the Hilton Hotels & Resorts chain. It is situated directly above the In ...
with 249 rooms in a total area of 34,500 m
2. Lufthansa has leased 18,500 m
2, and 1,000 of its employees moved in by the Spring of 2012. A 3,600 square meters area is provided for a medical center. 5,900 square meters is provided for restaurants and shops.
References
External links
The Squaire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Squaire
Buildings and structures in Frankfurt
Office buildings completed in 2011