Reaching the limit: August 2007

Monday, August 27, 2007

Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank tower

Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank tower, Frankfurt, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, 1993

The Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank Tower, or DZ Tower as it is known, is poetic. The Frankfurt skyscraper, which is semi-circular in plan and topped by a very large cornice, was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the New York architectural firm.
Mr. Terranova provides the following commentary:
"At 682 feet high, the DZ Bank building has become part of the Frankfurt skyline along with Murphy and Jahn's Messeturm (843 feet) and Foster's Commerzbank (850 feet). Characterizing the downtown area, these three isolated buildings look down on the city like bizarre and slightly shocked giants, symbols of the financial supremacy of this part of Germany."

Monday, August 20, 2007

Emirates Twin Towers

The "Emirates Twin Towers," another new Dubai landmark, is something of a misnomer as the towers are not twins. They are, however, quite stunning. Designed by NORR Group Consultants International, the buildings were completed in 2000. One tower is 1,165 feet high and the other is 1,014 feet high. The smaller tower has a 400-room hotel and a restaurant on its top floor. These are very elegant structures. Each tower is triangular in plan and apart from the fact that they both have angular roofs and spires they are very different. The taller tower is the more successful design and its canted roof is in the shape of an "oblique pyramid," as described by Mr. Terranova, not unlike Daniel Libeskind's later design for the Freedom Tower on the site of the demolished World Trade Center in New York. Its facade has several major elements. The bottom of the tower has a circular glass inside rectilinear columns at the corners. The cylindrical motif is repeated near the top where a windowed, multi-storied column is at the corners and is flanked five vertical windows. Above the cylindrical upper column the same corner has a small band of horizontal windows, which are very simple in contrast with the very handsome horizontal banding treatment of windows in the middle of the tower. The varied facade is extremely crisp and finely proportioned. The lower tower is not as showy but is also very impressive with three large bays of windows. The top bay is slightly curved. While the higher tower's windows wrap around one corner, the lower tower's windows do not extend to the corners and are framed by the building's masonry edges. The buildings rise from a low-riseplatform and are not surrounded by tall buildings, making their presence on the skyline even more pronounced. The towers are niced spaced from each other and while quite different they share a bold yet very refined style.