All sorts of towers and gates already characterize the northern entrance to the city. You can clearly see them from the A9: the Skyline Tower, the Highlight Towers, the Munich Gate, the high-rises of the student city and, far behind, the Olympic Tower. A new silhouette will appear in front of them all in a few years. Because at the motorway exit to the Frankfurter Ring, a multifunctional quarter called “Die Schmiede” is planned instead of an industrial area. And a 96-meter high-rise building is being built there.
FFR 227 GmbH, which belongs to Hammer AG, wants to develop a modern commercial site with factory buildings, offices, a hotel, restaurants and shops on 5.6 hectares east of Lilienthalallee in Freimann. Up to 3,500 jobs are to be created.
The urban development competition for the entire district was won by the architectural firm UTA from Stuttgart and Bauchplan Landschaftsarchitekten, Munich. Your concept forms the basis for the development plan that is now being drawn up. However, the UTA design for the high-rise on Quartiersplatz with a striking facade and vertical gardens was apparently too expensive. In any case, it only came in second place, partly because of the “higher investment costs for construction and technical expansion,” as the jury said.
The high-rise building by the Berlin architects will be integrated into the urban development design of the UTA architectural firm.
(Photo: UTA architects and urban planners)
Instead, the jury placed the high-rise building by the Berlin offices of Robertneun Architekten and Lohrengel Landschaft in first place. According to the jury, their proposal, which now has to be merged with UTA’s district design, draws “its special charisma and significance from a multi-layered and multifaceted close-up and long-distance effect” and is “clearly and simply structured”. The assessment goes on to say that public use of the top floor has not yet been planned, but could offer added value.
The planning committee acknowledged the competition results without discussion. It would have been worth asking why there is no public access to the top floor. This is actually laid down in the high-rise study. It should also come, says project manager Resul Kilic from Hammer AG. In what form that needs to be clarified now. In any case, construction work should begin at the end of 2026 if everything goes according to plan.