Commerzbank Tower is a 56-story, skyscraper in the banking district of Frankfurt, Germany. Including an antenna spire on top, the tower has a total height of , making it the tallest building in Germany.

Commerzbank Tower was designed by Foster & Partners, with Arup and Krebs & Kiefer (structural engineering), J. Roger Preston with P&A Petterson Ahrens (mechanical engineering), Schad & Hölzel (electrical engineering). Construction of the building began in 1994 and took three years to complete. The building provides of office space for the Commerzbank headquarters, including winter gardens and natural lighting and air circulation. The building is lighted at night with a yellow lighting scheme that was designed by Thomas Ende who won a competition.

In its immediate neighbourhood are other skyscrapers including the Eurotower (former home of the European Central Bank), the Main Tower, the Silberturm, the Japan Center and the Gallileo. The area forms Frankfurt's central business district, commonly known as Bankenviertel.

Features

thumb|left|267px|Garden on the 19th floor of Commerzbank Tower

When the building was planned in the early 1990s, Frankfurt's Green Party, who governed the city together with the Social Democratic Party, encouraged the Commerzbank to design a 'green' skyscraper. The result was the world's first so-called ecological skyscraper: besides the use of 'sky-gardens', environmentally friendly technologies were employed to reduce energy required for heating and cooling.

Sky gardens

Commerzbank Tower is shaped as a rounded equilateral triangle with a central, triangular atrium. At nine different levels, the atrium opens up to one of the three sides, forming large sky gardens. These open areas allow more natural light in the building, reducing the need for artificial lighting. At the same time it ensures offices in the building's two other sides have a view of either the city or the garden.

In order to eliminate the need of supporting columns in the sky gardens, the building was constructed in steel rather than the conventional (and cheaper) concrete. It was the first skyscraper in Germany where steel was used as the main construction material.

Height

It is a 56-story building, with the highest occupied floor at . The roof is at a height of . The antenna spire on top gives the tower a total height of .

  • In 2007, Wrebbit released a 3D puzzle from the Towers Made To Scale Collection, which includes Commerzbank Tower and Messeturm in one box-set.
  • In his 2011 book Boomerang, Michael Lewis describes a meeting with a German financier who claimed the top of the Commerzbank Tower contains a glass room that serves as a men's toilet from which, he joked, one could, "in full view of the world below, [void one's bowels] on Deutsche Bank."

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File:Frankfurt-Skyline-2012.jpg|Commerzbank Tower at night, a focal point of the Frankfurt skyline

File:Frankfurt am Main nightshot.jpg|At night

File:Commerzbank Tower from Main Tower.jpg|Seen from the top of the Main Tower

File:Frankfurt Am Main-Commerzbank Tower-Ansicht vom Eisernen Steg.jpg|View from the Iron Bridge

File:Panorama 46.JPG|Street level view

File:Frankfurt Commerzbank Tower (Kaiserplatz).jpg|From Kaiserplatz

File:Commerzbank Tower Gardens 2012-09-06 02.jpg|Interior

File:Commerzbank Vent.jpg|Close-up of the spire. Steam escapes from vents that are integrated into the spire cladding.

File:Commerzbank Tower Entrance.jpg|Entrance

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See also

  • List of tallest buildings in Frankfurt
  • List of tallest buildings in Germany
  • List of skyscrapers

References

Citations

Books

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