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Dutch architect Ben van Berkel of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] has won a competition to design a tower that will house the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Frankfurt, Germany.

The facade of the 110 metre tower will appear to change shape depending on the angle from which it is viewed.

“It appears needle-thin from one spot, strong and straight from
another, and complex with a slight twist from yet another,” says van
Berkel.
The following information is from UNStudio:
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UNStudio/ Ben van Berkel’s design selected for new hotel tower in Frankfurt
Yesterday, UNStudio was selected in the competition for a 110 meter tall hotel tower.
From the six projects presented, the jury, chaired by Prof. Johann
Eisele, chose the designs by UNStudio – Ben van Berkel (Amsterdam), and
Kohn, Pedersen, Fox (New York) and recommended proceeding with the
UNStudio design for further development.
According to Ben van Berkel the design for the Grand Hyatt tower
celebrates and highlights the cosmopolitan character and diversity of
Frankfurt. ‘It has three different elevations that are linked to the
different aspects of the city. The tower takes up the variation and
diversity offered by the city of Frankfurt and reflects that
multiplicity of experiences back to the city itself. The tower can be
perceived differently from each perspective; it appears needle-thin
from one spot, strong and straight from another, and complex with a
slight twist from yet another.”
The new tower will house a 5-star-plus hotel with 405 rooms and
suites, a ballroom, spa, various restaurants, a lobby bar and a public
Sky Lounge on the top floor, and the possibility of an adjacent
congress center. The hotel tower consists of 30 floors at a height of
approximately 110 metres and an area of 54,562.70 m2 for hotel tower +
plinth.
The new hotel will be located opposite the currently emerging
high-rise office Tower 185. The first building to be realized in
Frankfurt’s Europaviertel was the Mövenpick Hotel. Along with a number
of apartments and office buildings a second hotel, the Meininger Hotel,
is currently under construction.
As part of a multiple assignment, yesterday six architects presented
their ideas for the approximately 110-meter-high hotel tower. Other
offices which presented their designs were Ingenhoven Architects
(Dusseldorf), JSK Architects (Frankfurt), Lederer, Ragnarsdottir, Oei
(Stuttgart) and Reichel Stauth + Architects (Brunswick). The jury
consisted of: Councillor Edwin Schwarz (City of Frankfurt), Bernhard H.
Hansen (Vivico), Prof. Jochem Jourdan (Jourdan & Müller PAS), Prof.
Uwe Frerichs (Bielefeld University), Anne Geier Mann (Hyatt) and
Matthias Lowin (Viador).
All of the designs will be exhibited from the 20th until the 27th
May 2009 in the foyer of the Technical Town Hall of the City of
Frankfurt (Braubachstrasse 15, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00 clock).
The jury chairman Prof. Eisele pointed out: “All the proposals were
of an exceptionally high standard. The award-winning designs by
UNStudio and Kohn, Pedersen Fox are particularly outstanding as they
present a type of high-rise which does not yet exist in this form in
Frankfurt. The contribution by UNStudio demonstrates how harmony can be
created between extensive functional demands and the high requirements
of exterior and interior design.”
According to Mr. Schwarz the designs are very well integrated into
the urban planning of the new neighborhood: “With this exceptional
high-rise the new project will provide the entrance area of the Europe
district with a very visible accent.”
Bernhard H. Hansen said: “An architectural language has been found
that responds to the high demands of the Grand Hyatt account whilst
simultaneously integrating perfectly into the neighborhood.”
The new Grand Hyatt, as part of the ensemble Skyline Plaza, marks
the entrance of the Europe Allee, with its impact stretching along Oslo
street in a North-South direction. With the new hotel tower, 1,000 beds
of different categories will be available in the Europe District. The
Europe District is growing rapidly: The first residential building will
be completed in spring 2009, with two more to follow in 2010. Overall,
in the first phase approximately 780 houses are planned. The
construction of the first office building, headquarters of the Germany
bank BNP Paribas, started in the autumn of 2008 and will be realized
mid-2010. The four-star Mövenpick Hotel Frankfurt City was realized in
2006. In February 2008 Vivico closed a lease contract with the Berlin
hotel group Meininger. The new hotel at the entrance of the Torhause is
also already under construction and will be opened in 2010.
At the entrance of the European quarter, at the
Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage, Vivico has been building the Tower 185 since
September 2008; the first skyscraper at this location. Before
construction began Vivico closed a contract for approximately 60,000 m_
of rental space with the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

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Posted by Rose Etheringtonhome:dezeen.com