High-Rise Master Plan 1998

With the 1998 high-rise master plan, the City of Frankfurt wanted to express its political opinion on how and where high-rise buildings should have been built. Using this master plan, it was intended to give investors and clients better orientation.

The design of a new high-rise master plan – designed by Jourdan & Müller under the title ‘Frankfurt 2000’ – was presented to the public in September 1997. The design provided 18 new high-rise locations in three ‘densification zones’. An important recurring feature of the plan was the “cluster concept”, which says that high-rise buildings should be grouped together in clusters. Wentz, who was then responsible for the planning, said that this concept would leave other districts of high-rise buildings free and “preserve their urban, social and cultural identity.” This would limit the investment pressure to three defined high-rise areas.

The first consolidation zone is the traditional Financial District, where Jourdan & Müller proposed the construction of five high-rise buildings with heights between 130 meters (426 feet) and 228 meters (748 feet). The second compaction zone, Messe/European District includes the exhibition ground as well as the area of ​​a directly adjoining main station, on which a new city district is planned. A total of five high-rise buildings were proposed for the area, including the 369-meter (1,210 feet) Millennium Tower. The third zone with six high-rise buildings was the park area. The Park District was to become a new city quarter on the grounds of the central station, as the Deutsche Bahn wanted, through the “Frankfurt 21“project, to replace the dead-end railway station with a transit station.

Of the 18 suggested locations, 16 were approved by the City of Frankfurt. The decision was made for a high-rise building on the site of the Allianz company on the Taunusanlage (90 meters/295 feet) and a high-rise on the former Telenorma area (160 meters/525 feet). The condensed zones are described in detail below.