Messeviertel and Westend

Messeviertel is the area around the exhibition, Frankfurter Messe. The most famous exhibitions are the annual cars, music and book fairs. Frankfurter Messe is the world's largest trade fair organiser. Some of Frankfurt's tallest skyscrapers, as the iconic Messeturm, are situated in Messeviertel and Westend, the district between Messeviertel and Bahnhofviertel.


Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage is the heavily trafficated road that leads from Hauptbahnhof and financial district to the exhibition area.

MesseTurm and Pollux seen from Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage.

Pollux, Messeturm and City-Haus from 1975, that originally had a black/brown facade but was recladding in white.

Westend

Westend Strasse 1 (DZ Bank) from 1993 has a striking design. It is 208m tall and has 51 floors. On one side of the building is the modern and polish Westend area, and on the other side the red light district!

On one side of the building is the modern and polish Westend area, and on the other side the red light district!

Westend Strasse 1, also called DZ Bank, was designed by the famous Kohn Pedersen Fox architect bureau.

The sculpture outside Westendduo from 2006.

St. Antonius Kirche.

The "Collar and tie" sculpture in front of DZ Bank.

 

Messeviertel

St. Matthäus Kirche is now surrounded by skyscrapers; Pollux, 130m tall from 1997 and Tower 185 (under construction)

Tower 185, here under construction (2010), will be the 3rd tallest building in Frankfurt upon completion in 2011. 204m tall and 55 floors.

MesseTurm, 257m tall, was Europe's tallest skyscraper upon completion in 1991. It was surpassed by Commerzbank Tower, also in Frankfurt, in 1997. It has 63 floors (it is still the tallest in Germany by number of floors) and is the most elegant skyscraper in Frankfurt, in my opinion.

MesseTurm was designed by famous architects Murphy/Jan.

Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage with the Marriott Hotel.

Europaturm seen from Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage. At a height of 338m, Europaturm from 1979 is the second tallest TV tower in Germany (after Berlin) and the tallest structure in Frankfurt.

The "Hammering man" from 1991 is a moving sculpture in front of MesseTurm and the Trade Fair is a 21 m high sculpture that has been designed by Jonathan Borofsky. There are similar moving sculptures in New York, Seattle, Seoul and 6 other cities.

Messe Frankfurt, the world's largest trade fair. Among its many fairs are cars, books and music. It has an area of 578 000 square meters.

The backside of the trade fair looks much cooler, but is hard to see from street level. It has 9 exhibition halls. In 2007, Messe Frankfurt organised a total of 112 trade fairs, of which 68 abroad.

Festhalle Frankfurt from 1908 is the oldest building in the fair area. The Festhalle is one of the most important buildings of the late historicism. The architect is Friedrich von Thiersch.

Details of the brown granite exterior of MesseTurm.

Marriott (the building is also called Plaza Büro Center) is Frankfurt's highest hotel. It was Frankfurt's tallest building when completed in 1976. It has 47 floors.

Maritim Hotel.

Flags at the exhibition.

Heavy traffic in the Fair area.

Messe Torhaus. It craves a lot of effort as a pedestrian to get to this place and take a photo of this postmodern building from 1985! The building is only 116 m tall, but is worth to see because of the design by Prof U M Ungers.

...and for the futuristic look of the glass skybridge above the trains.

IBC Tower, a more conventional building, from 2003 (but looks much older). 30 floors.

Skyline and "Man with hammer".