Regional park tower

Basic data

Place:

Regional park portal , Weilbach

Country:

Hesse

Country:

Germany

Altitude :

121 m

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 53.9 ″ N , 8 ° 26 ′ 12.3 ″ E

Use:

Observation tower

Tower data

Construction time :

2012

Construction costs :	approx. € 500,000
Client :	Regional Park Pilot GmbH
Architect :	Peter Karle, Darmstadt
Building material :	Metal clad with wooden slats

Total height :

41 m

Viewing platform:

27 m

Further data

Number of steps:	170 steps
Opening hours:	during the day
Address:	Frankfurter Strasse 76, 65439 Flörsheim am Main

Position map

Regional park tower

The regional park tower is a 41 m high observation tower not far from the visitor center of the regional park portal at the Weilbacher gravel pits northeast of Weilbach in the Hessian Main-Taunus district .

history

In addition to the 2011 opened a regional park portal to the Regional Park Rhein-Main and the construction of a highly visible at the planning was a landmark provided, directly related to the regional park should be and its nature-loving orientation. In 2012, the regional park tower was built according to the plans of architect Peter Karle , the overall shape of which is laid out as a large figure, which should suggest associations and interpretations in the area of natural forms and enable various interpretations such as blossom or bud. The € 500,000 project, which was previously called the “Tower of Evil” because of the involvement of the Fraport Foundation, was to be financed by Regionalpark-Pilot GmbH with € 160,000, Regionalpark Ballungsraum GmbH with € 170,000, the State of Hesse with € 102,000 and the Fraport AG with € 68,000.

In 2013, the Wiesbaden group of the Association of German Architects (BDA) awarded the Regional Park Tower the Johann Wilhelm Lehr plaque for excellent architecture in Hesse .

description

The regional park tower is a modern steel structure with wooden cladding. The floor plan at the foot of the tower is an elongated, asymmetrical hexagon, the longitudinal axis of which is approximately south-east-north-west. Due to the entrance on the northwest side, from which an initially straight metal staircase with a sloping superstructure leads into the tower, this part is significantly longer than the slightly bulbous one on the opposite side. The load-bearing structure in the core of the tower, which surrounds the further, left-turning staircase in a rectangular shape, consists of eight steel supports connected in a half-timbered construction and two further supports located in the middle outside the rectangle, which results in the outer hexagonal shape. On the outside there are wooden beams , to which in turn wooden slats are attached, which give the tower its special external shape .

The staircase consists of 17 sections, each with 10 steps and 16 intermediate landings. The lower 30 steps lead in a straight line to an intermediate platform on the southeast side, the following 140 steps left to the 27 m high viewing platform . The sloping superstructure of the lower staircase reaches the vertical corpus at a height of almost 10 m. After another 30 steps, there is a rectangular opening in the lamellar facade at the upper edge of the bulbous projection on the southeast side of the tower at a height of approx. 14.5 m, which allows a view towards Weilbacher Kiesgruben and Frankfurt Airport . After a total of 140 steps, an opening on the northwest side allows a view of the regional park portal and the Taunus . After 170 steps you reach the viewing platform, which protrudes from the tower to the south-east and a glass plate is embedded in the floor. From here you can see the entire area of the regional park from the mouth of the Main in the west to far beyond Frankfurt in the east.

The most distinctive feature of the regional park tower are the four peaks towering high above the platform, which are also provided with wooden slats on the outside, but with wooden panels painted yellow on the side facing the platform, which are illuminated in the dark by two lamps attached to the side of the platform .

Outside the opening times, access to the tower is closed with a rolling grille .