The area of the former police headquarters in Frankfurt (top left in the picture), which has not been developed for a long time, is to be rebuilt. For many years there was a dispute between the State of Hesse and the City of Frankfurt about the project. The property is currently owned by the project developer Gerchgroup from Düsseldorf. After almost 20 years of vacancy, the project is finally moving.

An architectural competition was held for the project known as Das Präsidium (in English: The Presidency), and the results of it were presented today. On the 15.4 hectare property at Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage street, a building ensemble consisting of a high-rise (in the picture above right), new buildings and a protected building are to be created. A “courageous design” is planned for the high-rise tower, but also subsidized apartments.

Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten emerged as the winner of the architectural competition. After an intensive exchange of content under the direction of the jury chairman Ulrike Lauber, the representatives of the city, the investor, and the independent architects agreed that the design by Meixner Schlüter Wendt is particularly impressive because of the extraordinary high-rise design in order to continue the development of the area.

Among the fifteen participating architectural firms were Zaha Hadid (London), Max Dudler (Berlin), Kleihues und Kleihues (Berlin), and von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (Hamburg). The Frankfurt architects KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten, Meixner, Schlüter, Wendt Architekten, ATP, and B&V Braun Canton were also invited.

The planned real estate complex has an area of ​​around 100,000 square meters (1,076,391 squre feet). A hotel, offices, a school gym and a kindergarten are to be built there. Financed and subsidized apartments are also planned. Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in 2022, with completion of the entire area planned for 2026. A total of around 800 million euros are to be invested.

Due to the skyscraper masterplan, the building law enabled a high-rise building with a height of 145 meters (475 feet) at the location. However, the now accepted draft has a height of approx. 175 meters (574 feet). In the past, the possibility of distributing the building mass over more than one high-rise has been discussed again and again. The project developer did not succeed with this plan. The now presented high-rise tower has a mixed use and 48 upper floors. A special feature of the exterior design is the sloping head of the building.

Architects from Germany and abroad submitted their proposals to the non-public architecture competition. The Frankfurt City Planning Office will present all designs in an exhibition from Wednesday on. The drafts of all architects can be viewed from September 2, 2020 to September 16, 2020 in the atrium of the city planning office. Head of Planning Mike Josef (SPD) comments: “I am very pleased that, after the long vacancy, we now have an attractive concept and that the unsightly wasteland is coming to an end”.