A skyscraper doesn’t just have a certain arbitrary height. The maximum height that can be built in a certain area is decided by neither the client nor the architect: This is regulated in the city’s current development plan for the given lot. However, the attentive observer will notice that every now and then there is a discrepancy between the land-use plan and the height actually built in a high-rise building. In other words: here and there a skyscraper will be higher than expected. However, this phenomenon is not the exception in Frankfurt, but rather the rule.
For each new high-rise location, a land-use plan with a maximum height is drawn up. However, this height does not include any technical floors that are later added to the building structure in the detailed architectural design. In addition, technical installations on the roof, such as for elevator technology, can quickly grow a high-rise tower by a few meters.
There are plenty of examples of towers that have grown in height:
- Tower 185 (200 meters instead of 185 meters)
- Grand Tower (180 meters instead of 172 meters)
- OmniTurm (190 meters instead of 185 meters)
- One Forty West (145 meters instead of 140 meters)
- and many more
Most of the new high-rise buildings in Frankfurt are therefore affected by this fact.
