Main Tower is a 56-storey, 200 m (656 ft) skyscraper in the Innenstadt district of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is named after the nearby Main river. The building is 240 m (787 ft) when its antenna spire is included.
The tower has five underground floors and two public viewing platforms. It is the only skyscraper in Frankfurt with a public viewing observatory. It is the 4th tallest building in Frankfurt and the 4th tallest in Germany, tied with the Tower 185.
The structure was built between 1996 and 1999, and serves as headquarters for Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba). Other tenants are the German Offices of Merrill Lynch and Standard & Poor's and a television studio of the Hessischer Rundfunk. The first tenants moved in on 5 November 1999, and the official inauguration was 28 January 2000. During weather reports by the television station, the weather reporter stands on the top of the building.
The foyer of the building has two art pieces accessible to the public: the video installation by Bill Viola "The World of Appearances" and the wall mosaic by Stephan Huber "Frankfurter Treppe / XX. Jahrhundert" (English: "Frankfurt's Steps/20th century").
The tower's design features what appears to be two connected towers. The smaller of the two is of a cuboid shape and a design common to 1970s architecture. The second and taller of the two towers is a circular tower with an entire blue glass exterior which features the transmission tower on top.
Read more about Main Tower: Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words main and/or tower:
“But oh, not the hills of Habersham,
And oh, not the valleys of Hall
Avail: I am fain for to water the plain.
Downward, the voices of Duty call—
Downward, to toil and be mixed with the main,
The dry fields burn, and the mills are to turn,
And a myriad flowers mortally yearn,
And the lordly main from beyond the plain
Calls o’er the hills of Habersham,
Calls through the valleys of Hall.”
—Sidney Lanier (1842–1881)
“The King’s name is a tower of strength.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)