The German dramatist, poet and historian Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) spent the summer of 1785 in a farmhouse in what was then the village of Gohlis, near Leipzig. At that time, Schiller presumably had a better view from his bedroom window than I did when I visited in 2005. Of course Read More …
Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 16 The Skyper tower, in the center of Frankfurt at Taunusanlage 1, was completed in December 2004. It has 38 floors and is 153.80 meters tall, which makes it the sixteenth tallest building in Frankfurt (as of 2020). Skyper is easy to recognize because of its Read More …
Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 15 The Marienturm, completed in 2019, is my nomination for Frankfurt’s most conspicuous mediocre building. While the developers praise its “elegant and clear architecture”, my impression is that it looks clunky and out of place among the more imaginative nearby Read More …
On the Schillerplatz in the center of Stuttgart there is an exhibition of historical musical instruments. While this collection is not as large as the ones in Brussels, Berlin, Nürnberg or Paris, it is still well worth seeing and has interesting explanations of why certain Baroque instruments went out of fashion, Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 14 << The two towers of the Deutsche Bank are highly reflective buildings, in fact one of them is reflected in the other in this photo. When they were completed in 1984 the neighbors in the Westend district were irritated because those Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 12 << The Silver Tower used to be the headquarters of the Dresdner Bank, which was gobbled up by some other bank during a recent financial crisis. The building’s main tenant is now the Deutsche Bahn or DB, Germany’s labyrinthine state-owned railway corporation, Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 10 << Currently there are two skyscrapers in Frankfurt which are listed as being 170 meters tall. This is the “architectural height”, which includes spires and other such permanent features, but does not include external things like flagpoles, antennae, or signage, Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 7 << The Trianon got its name because of its triangular shape and because of the upside-down pyramid (or “polygonal diamond”) which is (or seems to be) suspended from the three corners at the top. It is 186 meters tall, which makes it Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 6 << The 190-meter Omniturm was completed in 2019 (except for a few odds and ends that they are still working on) and is now Frankfurt’s sixth-highest building. As the Latin prefix Omni- implies, the Omniturm is intended to be all things for Read More …
>> Frankfurt Skyline Countdown # 5 << Most Frankfurt skyscrapers are not open to the public, so we are glad that the Main Tower, which was completed in the year 2000, has an observation deck on the roof (the 56th floor), which is open to everyone — except Read More …