GSW high-rise

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The red shutters mark the facade of the building

The GSW high-rise (since 2017: Rocket Tower ) is the former headquarters of GSW Immobilien AG , which was expanded from 1995 to 1999 according to plans by the architects Sauerbruch Hutton , in Rudi-Dutschke-Strasse in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg with 24,500 m² of office and retail space. The 81.5 meter high building is located on the site of the former Ullstein complex in Berlin's newspaper district .

The east view shows the old building, the skyscraper and the low-rise building with the round structure, the "pillbox"

In 1991, the Senate Building Department , the then Kreuzberg district and the GSW announced a two-stage, limited architectural competition to expand the existing 17-story high-rise from the 1960s, which Matthias Sauerbruch and Louisa Hutton won. Taking the existing building into account, the architects planned a four-part building ensemble consisting of the 22-storey high-rise slab that stands parallel to Charlottenstrasse , a three-storey low-rise building on Rudi-Dutschke-Strasse and an elliptical , three-storey tower called "Pillbox" on the northeastern one End of the low building. The curved convection facade from the fourth floor of the high-rise slab, which is partly based on the low-rise building, is intended to help reduce energy consumption, as does the second curtain wall in front of the west side, which is equipped with shutters in different shades of red. The roof of the skyscraper is reminiscent of the " flight roofs " popular in the 1950s . The black-clad low-rise building is also concave, i.e. curved inward. The ground floor of the low-rise building also contains retail space.

The ceremonial opening of the building ensemble took place on September 2, 1999; the construction costs amounted to 180 million marks . The architects were awarded the German Facade Prize for ventilated curtain walls in 2001 for the building .

After privatization and sale to a consortium of international fund companies under the umbrella of Whitehall ( Goldman Sachs ) and Cerberus in 2004, the company, now called GSW Immobilien GmbH, sold its headquarters to financial investors a year later and leased its office space back for ten years. As GSW Immobilien AG, she left the building on July 31, 2015. The high-rise belongs to a JP Morgan fund through which it is also managed.

The start-up company Rocket Internet moved into the building complex as the main tenant at the end of 2016, which is also used by the German Consumer Association and other companies, and has set up its new headquarters there under the name Rocket Tower .

Since the beginning of 2017 there has been a modern conference center in the Rocket Tower , which is available to the general public under the name Rocket Tower Conference .

Web links

Commons : GSW administration building  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ baunetz.de: Bold topping the GSW highrise by Sauerbruch Hutton in Berlin , September 23, 1998
  2. ↑ German Facade Prize 2001 for ventilated curtain walls (VHF)
  3. ↑ GSW has sold its skyscraper on Kochstrasse . In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 11, 2005, accessed on April 9, 2015.
  4. ↑ Rocket Internet moves into new headquarters. In: Gründerszene , April 1, 2015
  5. ^ Rocket Tower Conference

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '22.9 "  N , 13 ° 23' 34.4"  E