American Consulate General in Düsseldorf
The former Consulate General of the United States of America at Cecilienallee 5 in Düsseldorf - Golzheim was built in 1953 according to plans by Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) in the international style of the 1950s. The architect Otto Apel implemented the design on site.
description
The administrative building is an elongated, four-story structure. The ground floor was designed as an open columned hall into which a single-storey, orthogonally standing low building is inserted. The facade is characterized by the steel frame construction . It is divided into seven axes, each axis has six windows. The entrance hall is a separate building that is inserted in the second and third axis on the courtyard side. The hall is clad inside and outside with large black marble slabs. The parapet fields of the steel window elements were made of Roman travertine .
Art historical significance
The building breaks away from the traditional architecture and organic architecture of the postwar period and belongs to the international style of modernism to:
“In terms of architectural history, the building can be assigned to the 'International Style' after the Second World War. Characteristic of this direction, which differs from the traditional building and the organic style of the 50s, is a strict tectonic structure, which mostly creates transparency and lightness in a steel frame construction using a lot of glass and optically light materials. "
history
In the early 1990s, the building was modernized after the United States relocated its consulate to an office building behind the main train station (Willi-Becker-Allee 10). Security systems installed subsequently were removed. From 1997 to 1998 the house was modernized again, an extension was built on the former parking lot. When the house was last modernized, a second sliding window level was built in, whereby the original window systems were retained. A library was installed in the courtyard wing, where one axis was generously glazed.
literature
- Roland Kanz, Jürgen Wiener (ed.): Architectural guide Düsseldorf. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-496-01232-3 , p. 54, object no. 72.
- Paul Ernst Wentz: Architecture Guide Düsseldorf. A guide to 95 selected buildings. Droste Verlag, Düsseldorf 1975, No. 33.
- Jörg AE Heimeshoff: Listed houses in Düsseldorf, with garden and ground monuments. Nobel, Essen 2001, p. 70.
Web links
- Entry in the monument list of the state capital Düsseldorf at the Institute for Monument Protection and Preservation
- Official Site , United States Department of State
Coordinates: 51 ° 14 ′ 25.6 ″ N , 6 ° 46 ′ 17.6 ″ E