The wave (Frankfurt am Main)
| The wave (building) | |
|---|---|
 Frankfurter Welle building complex, view from the Main Tower |
|
| Data | |
| place | Frankfurt |
| architect | JSK |
| Construction year | 1998-2003 |
| height | 50 m |
| Floor space | GFA 59,100 m² |
| Coordinates | 50 ° 7 '4 " N , 8 ° 40' 17" E |
The Frankfurter Welle , the owner since mid-2007 as the wave marketed, is a three-parts of the building ensemble in the district Westend-Süd in Frankfurt . The building complex with 80,600 square meters of gross floor area got its name after a wave-shaped building constructed from 1998 to 2003 according to plans by JSK . With twelve upper floors, it rises above the ground floor to a height of 50 meters. The city of Frankfurt am Main has taken the architectural peculiarity into account with the street name An der Welle .
Location and surroundings
On the 25,000 square meter property at the Alte Oper directly outside the ramparts , the headquarters of the metal company was located from 1881 to 1994 . It is surrounded by the Bockenheimer Anlage in the south, the Reuterweg in the west, the Gärtnerweg in the north and the Leerbachstraße in the east.
The largest single building is the eponymous part of the building with a total of twelve floors along Reuterweg. Two galleries divide the building into the three segments Park Building , Center Building and Westend Building with a total of 59,100 square meters of gross floor area. On the eastern side of the ensemble, directly on Leerbachstrasse, is the seven-storey Leerbach Building with seven floors totaling 16,900 square meters. It was built in 1984 as an office building for the metal company and was gutted and completely rebuilt as part of the new construction of the shaft.
The publicly accessible promenade with an artificial watercourse, which is intended to remind of the former course of the Leerbach, runs between the two components. Service and catering areas line the promenade. The promenade is called An der Welle ; an application to name it in Ignatz-Bubis-Weg after Ignatz Bubis, who died in 1999 , was withdrawn in February 2000 in local advisory board 2. Instead, the city renamed the Obermainbrücke the Ignatz-Bubis-Brücke .
The smallest single building is the former board building of the metal company, now known as the Opernpalais . The neoclassical building from 1905 was one of the few administrative buildings that remained undamaged during the Second World War . During the occupation of Frankfurt on March 27, 1945, American troops confiscated the building as the headquarters of the American military government in Frankfurt; it was only returned to the metal company in early 1949. The building, which was completely renovated in 2003, has 4600 square meters of space on four floors.
Construction and data
When erecting the shaft, value was placed on high-quality and environmentally friendly building technology. The air conditioning is achieved via DEC air conditioning systems , which do not use conventional refrigerants and are operated with district heating. The building management system is elaborately designed and controlled via the European installation bus with over 100,000 data points.
Of the total area of 80,600 square meters, 4,000 square meters are available for retail and catering. The smallest rental units have 300 square meters of floor space. The complex has an underground car park with 448 parking spaces. Tenants include management consultancies, banks and financial institutions.
In the building permit, the city stipulated that in addition to office space, around 2000 square meters of living space should also be provided. Therefore, 36 apartments between 30 and 80 square meters of living space were set up, but they are fully rented to a hotel operating company.
Use of the facility
The majority of the "Die Welle" facility is office space and is used by several tenants. Citigroup is one of the main tenants . Other tenants of larger spaces are Latham & Watkins LLP (one of the world's largest law firms), Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbh and The Doorman - a hotel directly in the adjacent building “An der Welle”.
In addition to office space, the complex also offers restaurants and fitness centers. Dean and David of the Enchilada group of companies as well as Fitness First are present on the premises.
History of origin
Before the metal company sold the property to Difa AG for approx. 500 million DM at the beginning of 1994 , it had planned the construction of a double tower based on a design by the Catalan architect Ricardo Boffil . A financial crisis affecting the company in early 1993 and the city's resistance to a high-rise building at this point made the plans unfeasible.
The concept of the new investor and the architects was presented in mid-1994 under the name City-Quartier . It was supposed to open up the previously completed administration complex of the metal company and create a smooth transition from the lively pedestrian zones Freßgass and Opernplatz to the residential areas of the Westende in the immediate vicinity of the Alte Oper .
Construction work began in April 1998. The first buildings were occupied in 2001. In mid-2002 the complex was essentially completed. A public opening ceremony planned for March 2003 was postponed to June because of the Iraq war .
A short time after the opening, it became clear that the investors' original concept did not work, as the wave attracts only a small number of running public despite its location close to the city center. Despite a high occupancy rate, the retail stores and restaurants were mostly empty outside of office hours. The investor therefore tried to liven up the outdoor area with a weekly farmers market, regular street festivals and other activities. The wave has been used for public broadcasts on large screens since the European Football Championship in 2004 . The President of the Hessian Retail Association criticized this as "helpless grasping at the straw". In mid-2005, the investor revised the catering concept. Instead of restaurants, several cafes and pubs were built.
In May 2007 Union Investment sold Frankfurter Welle together with the Neuer Kranzler-Eck in Berlin and 27 other properties in Germany to Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds . The total price was 1.36 billion euros, 703 million of which went to the Frankfurter Welle. The new investor announced that it would market the property under the name Die Welle in future . In October 2012, AXA Versicherung acquired the building complex together with the Norwegian State Pension Fund .
In 2015/16 the outdoor facilities were redesigned. The only eye catchers are tall, curved metal sculptures.
In June 2019, the complex was sold to the US investment company Invesco for 620 million euros .
literature
- Wolf-Christian Setzepfandt : Architecture Guide Frankfurt am Main / Architectural Guide . 3. Edition. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-496-01236-6 , p. 199 (German, English).
