Westendstraße 1 is a 53-

storey A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

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-ri ...

in the Westend-Süd district of

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 it ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

. The structure was completed in 1993 and together with the nearby

City-Haus City-Haus is a 42-storey skyscraper in the Westend-Süd district of Frankfurt, Germany. It was constructed from 1971 to 1974 and designed by architects Johannes Krahn and Richard Heil. It was the tallest building in Frankfurt from 1974–197 ...

, forms the headquarters of

DZ Bank DZ Bank AG () is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 800 cooperative banks and their around 8,500 branch offices. Within the German Cooperative Financial Group, which is one of Germany's la ...

. In 1995 it won the "Best Building of the Year" award by the American Chamber of Architects in the multifunctional skyscraper category. The tower is the third tallest skyscraper in Frankfurt and also in Germany.

Design

Overview

The building, designed by

Kohn Pedersen Fox Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is an American architecture firm that provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services for clients in both the public and private sectors. KPF is one of the largest architecture firms in ...

, is similar in style to an older building by the same architects,

1250 René-Lévesque 1250, boulevard René-Lévesque is a , 47-storey skyscraper in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The building was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates for IBM Canada and Marathon Realty, hence the former name "IBM-Marathon Tower". It is now named ...

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, Canada. The building is a reinforced concrete structure with a perforated facades and flat slabs. Each floor height is around 3.6 metres with a floor area of 950 square metres. The facade consists of fine, golden granite, giving it a white and bright appearance from afar. The building was designed by architect William Pedersen. The characteristic ring beam at the top of the tower (known commonly as ''the crown'') is a reminiscent of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the United States. The copper statue, ...

, but is also intended as a reminder to Frankfurt's history as the city where German emperors were crowned. The crown faces towards the old part of Frankfurt where the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of o ...

s were held at the

Frankfurt Cathedral Frankfurt Cathedral (german: link=no, Frankfurter Dom), officially Imperial Cathedral of Saint Bartholomew (german: link=no, Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus) is a Roman Catholic Gothic church located in the heart of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It ...

. The 95 tonne steel crown is heated in winter to prevent the forming of icicles which could endanger pedestrians or cars on the street below. The design for

Moshe Aviv Tower Moshe Aviv Tower ( he, מגדל משה אביב), is a skyscraper located in the demarcated area of the Diamond Exchange District (Israel Diamond Exchange) on Jabotinsky Road (No. 7) in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. The 68-stor ...

also called "City Gate" skyscraper in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and man ...

was inspired by the building.

Features

A sculpture by

Claes Oldenburg Claes Oldenburg (January 28, 1929 – July 18, 2022) was a Swedish-born American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions ...

and Coosje van Bruggen, called

Inverted Collar and Tie Inverted Collar and Tie is a sculpture designed in 1994 by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It is located in Frankfurt's Westend in front of the Westend Tower. The DG Bank ordered the artwork in 1993. It was made in California. ''Inver ...

is set up in front of the entrance.

In popular culture

* Westendstrasse 1 appears under the name ''Khoury Art Foundation Building'' as a

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus '' Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla ('' V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from whic ...

stage 8 Euro-Contemporary building set in ''

SimCity 4 ''SimCity 4'' is a city-building simulation computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. It was released on January 14, 2003. It is the fourth major installment in the ''SimCity'' series. ''SimCity 4'' has a single expans ...

'' (Deluxe or with Rush Hour).

Gallery

File:Kronenhochhaus.JPG, File:City of Sky.jpg File:Kronenhochhaus Entrance.JPG, File:Westendstrasse1badweather.JPG, File:Dzbank kronenhochhaus.jpg, File:Westendstrasse1schiller.jpg, Frankfurt-tower2 hg.jpg,

References