Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Hypo-Haus

Hypo-Haus (HVB Tower) by Walther and Bea Betz, Arabellastraße, Arabellapark, Bogenhausen, Munich

Hypo-Haus (HVB Tower) by Walther and Bea Betz, 1981
Arabellastraße
Arabellapark, Bogenhausen
Munich, March 2004

“The listed HVB Tower or formerly Hypo-house (Hypo-Haus) or Hypo high-rise building (Hypo-Hochhaus) is an administrative building of the HypoVereinsbank in Munich. In 1960 there were the first thoughts to centralize the headquarters of Hypobank, which was located to twelve different locations at that time. In 1970, concrete planning for the construction of the hypo-house at the Arabella Park started in cooperation with the architectural firm Betz. The construction preparations began in September 1974 with the excavation. For the low-rise buildings and the pillars of the tower, construction work began in April 1975. In November 1978, the new offices were occupied in the low-rise buildings. The skyscraper was completed in 1981 and opened officially on November 16, 1981. Today it is part of the administrative center of HypoVereinsbank at the Arabella Park. The ensemble also includes two low-rise buildings (North and South) and the later built "Hypo-House East".The building is located at the Richard-Strauss-Straße, corner Denninger Straße, right on the arterial road "Mittlerer Ring" (district Bogenhausen, subway station Richard-Strauss-Straße on line U4). It is 113.7 meters (374 feet) high and was designed and planned by architect couple Walther and Bea Betz. The static calculations were very complicated due to the unusual architecture and included 100,000 pages. The builder-owner was "Hypo-Bank Verwaltungszentrum GmbH & Co. KG", Held & Francke Bauaktiengesellschaft were the general contractor. HVB Tower was the first building in Munich with a height of about 100 meters (328 feet).The complex consists of a tower with 27 floors above ground, four underground floors and two low-rise buildings associated with the tower. The net floor area (NFA) is 100,000 m² (1,076,391 squarefeet) gross floor area of approximately 140,000 m² (1,506,947 squarefeet). As an architectural feature five floors are hanging in the Tower (5th-9th floor), which are suspended from a central support frame. Since 2006, the HVB Tower is a listed building. Until the completion of Uptown Munich in 2004, the 27-storey HVB Tower was Munich's tallest office building.” (Hypo-Haus, Wikipedia)

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