Postbank high-rise (Essen)
| Postbank skyscraper | |
|---|---|
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| Basic data | |
| Place: | Kruppstrasse 2 ( Essen-Südviertel ) |
| Construction time : | 1963-1967 |
| Architectural style : | International style |
| Architect : | Construction department of the Oberpostdirektion Düsseldorf |
| Use / legal | |
| Usage : | office building |
| Technical specifications | |
| Height : | 91.59 m |
| Floors : | 19th |
| Building material : | Reinforced concrete , steel , facade made of glass |
| Height comparison | |
| Food : | 3. ( list ) |
| address | |
| City: | eat |
| Country: | Germany |
The Postbank high-rise (formerly Postscheckamt ) is an architecturally striking high-rise from the 1960s in Essen 's Südviertel district . It has been a listed building since 2010 .
history
The city of Essen received its first postal check office in 1920. It was located in the ceramic house on Flachsmarkt. At that time there were almost 8,000 accounts, ten years later there were already over 31,000. Therefore the office had to move several times due to lack of space, so that several departments were distributed in different parts of the city.
In 1956, the Oberpostdirektion discussed a new building that would bring together all departments. The decision was made in 1957 for a piece of land on Freedom Square south of Essen Central Station , which belonged to Friedrich Krupp AG . In September 1963, construction of today's high-rise began, so that the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on October 15, 1965. Until the opening of the Essen town hall in 1979, the post office was the tallest skyscraper in Essen. In 1959 the construction of the neighboring Rheinstahl high-rise (from 1976 ThyssenKrupp, since 2017 RUHR Tower ) began, shortly afterwards the AEG-Haus (closed in 2014) and the RWE-Haus across from Kruppstrasse. Essen was the first city in Germany to commit to a skyline . Frankfurt am Main did not follow until 1962 .
architecture
The Postbank high-rise formed an urban development axis along the Dortmund-Duisburg railway line on the one hand and Kruppstrasse on the other hand , with the adjacent AEG building from 1953 and the subsequent Rheinstahl high-rise . In this context, the Postbank high-rise stood for a then new American-style building approach. The 1952 International Style Lever House on Park Avenue in New York served as a model . The AEG house was closed in 2014, so that the new Schenker head office has complemented the picture since 2015.
This type of high-rise is characterized by the combination of a narrow, 17-storey high-rise with a two-story low-rise building. This corresponded to the space required for the workplaces of the company at the time, which were connected to each other by the staggered floors via short official channels. The entire building is accessed by five passenger elevators, three freight elevators and two stairwells. The core has a reinforced concrete skeleton with over 14 meters spanned floor levels. With a height of 91.59 meters and 19 floors, the Postbank skyscraper is the third tallest skyscraper in the city of Essen today. The fully air-conditioned building has a curtain wall made of glass and light metal. Outwardly conspicuously structured light metal ribs form a ribbon-like sun protection that reinforces the horizontal effect of the building. Originally there was an open-plan office on almost every single floor, which was flooded with daylight all around. This made it possible to see through the floors from the outside, which gave the building a certain transparency. Today, many of these open plan floors are divided into smaller offices with drawn-in walls.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ DerWesten.de - Back then it was chic; July 15, 2008 , accessed April 4, 2013
- ↑ Bergmann, Berger; Brdenk, Peter; Krüssmann, Holger; Kleber, Wolfgang (ed.) (2013): Architecture in Essen. 1960 - 2013. p. 83. Essen: Klartext.
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 '2.4 " N , 7 ° 0" 43.5 " E