Westendstrasse 1, Postmodern skyscraper in Westend district, Frankfurt, Germany
Westendstrasse 1 is a 53-storey, 208-metre reinforced concrete tower in Frankfurt's Westend-Süd, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox with William Pedersen as architect. Its facade of fine, light granite alternates horizontal glass bands with grey spandrel strips, and a rectangular slab with a dense grid of small square windows adjoins the rounded tower. The 95-tonne steel crown of eleven rays projects eleven metres beyond the facade and faces the old town.
Westendstrasse 1 was completed in 1993, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox with William Pedersen as architect. In 1995 it received the "Best Building of the Year" award from the American Chamber of Architects in the multifunctional skyscraper category. Its design later inspired the Moshe Aviv Tower in Ramat Gan, Israel, finished in 2001.
The crown of eleven steel rays, weighing 95 tonnes, points toward Frankfurt's old town, where Holy Roman emperors were crowned at the cathedral; the ring is meant to recall the city's role as coronation site. The ground floor holds a large publicly accessible lobby with a restaurant, and apartments in the perimeter block add residents to an otherwise office-dominated building.
The tower stands at the corner of Westendstraße and Mainzer Landstraße in Westend-Süd. Its ground-floor lobby, with a restaurant, is open to the public but lightly used because of the site's edge-of-centre position. The crown is heated in winter, yet falling ice has repeatedly forced multi-day closures of the main entrance and forecourt on Mainzer Landstraße and at times of the adjoining Savignystraße.
The 95-tonne steel crown at the top is heated in winter so that no icicles form and endanger pedestrians or cars on the street below. Despite this, the main entrance and forecourt on Mainzer Landstraße, and at times the adjoining Savignystraße, have been closed for several days because of falling ice.
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