Messeturm

See also: Basler Messeturm and Messeturm Köln

Messeturm
Messeturm, Frankfurt-am-Main
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Office
Location	Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany
Coordinates	50°06′44″N 8°39′10″E / 50.11222°N 8.65278°E / 50.11222; 8.65278Coordinates: 50°06′44″N 8°39′10″E / 50.11222°N 8.65278°E / 50.11222; 8.65278
Construction started	13 July 1988
Opening	October 1990
Cost	500.000.000 DM
Height
Roof	257 m (843 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	63
Floor area	61,711 m2 (664,300 sq ft)
Design and construction
Main contractor	Tishman Speyer Properties
Architect	Helmut Jahn

The Messeturm is a skyscraper in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Its name translates as "Fair Tower" ("fair" in the sense of "trade fair") in German. It is the second tallest building in Frankfurt, the second tallest building in Germany and the also the second tallest in the European Union. The Messeturm's ground floor area is just 1,681 m² (18,090 sq ft). The Messeturm is directly located in the Frankfurt Trade Fair grounds. Helmut Jahn designed the Messeturm in the Postmodern architectural style.

Used as an office building, the Messeturm is 257 metres (843 ft) tall and has 63 floors. It was the tallest building in Europe from its completion in 1991 until 1997 when it was overtaken by the Commerzbank Tower, also located in Frankfurt, and only two meters taller.

The construction of the building's foundation set a world record for the longest continuous concrete pour. Ninety trucks poured concrete for 78 hours into the 6-metre (20 ft) deep foundation.

The 36.3 metres (119.1 ft) high pyramid on the very top of the Messeturm is what makes it most remarkable among other usual skyscrapers.

Similar designs by other architects include the Bank of America Plaza (1992) in Atlanta, Georgia and the Key Tower (1991) in Cleveland, Ohio. Frankfurters often call it Bleistift ("pencil") due to its shape.

The tower uses numerous geometric shapes in its design such as the square footprint which is the main shape used throughout the tower. It then rises to a cylindrical shape which finally completes in a pyramid.

It is one of the few buildings in Germany with their own postal code (60308), the others being Opernturm, another Frankfurt skyscraper, and the summit station on Zugspitze.

There are 900 parking places in a public parking garage and a direct connection to the subway.

The building also appears in the European tileset for the game SimCity 4, and a similar-looking building appears in SimCity 3000.

Gallery

• 

  The inner city ring with the Messeturm in the background

• 

  The Messeturm from the roof of Maintower

• 

  The Messeturm at night

• 

  Messeturm from street level

See also

• List of tallest buildings in the European Union
• List of tallest buildings in Germany
• List of tallest buildings in Frankfurt

External links

• Messe Tower at Structurae
• The Messeturm on Emporis.com (General database of skyscrapers)
• The Messeturm on SkyscraperPage (Diagrams of skyscrapers)
• Translated version of the German article

Records
Preceded by Moscow State University Main Building	Tallest Building in Europe 1990—1997 257 m	Succeeded by Commerzbank Tower
Preceded by Tour Montparnasse	Tallest Building in the European Union 1990—1997 257 m	Succeeded by Commerzbank Tower
Preceded by Silver Tower (In West Germany), Park Inn Berlin (In East Germany)	Tallest Building in Germany 1990—1997 257 m	Succeeded by Commerzbank Tower
Preceded by Silver Tower	Tallest Building in Frankfurt 1990—1997 257 m	Succeeded by Commerzbank Tower