Frankfurt

Large town as world-player
Every visitor welcomes Frankfurt with its unique skyline. It consists of the high-rise buildings of the European central bank, the most powerful German banks and many important national and international firms.
The stock exchange and fair underline the importance of Frankfurt as a place international trade. Frankfurt is highly accessible via its airport, the largest one in Germany, giving flight passengers the occasion for a quick trip to the inner city.
Besides the high-rise area, Frankfurt also has parts with a more village-like character. That’s perhaps why many people feel at-home in Frankfurt and why people from different cultural backgrounds live there together quietly and harmoniously.
Further, these may be reasons why the quiet, small big-city is called ‘metropolis’.

Skyline
The high-rise buildings, remarkable for their architecture, rise along certain streets. A nice panorama is created by the old buildings of the Römerberg in front, and the tops of the Taunus mountains in the back and the Frankfurt skyscrapers in the middle.
The skyline is actually growing fast – in the inner city four striking office towers are being built (KSP Architekten) and soon construction will start for the towers of the European central bank, designed by the Austrian architects of Coop Himmelb(l)au.

Changement of harbours
Frankfurt not only consists of high-rise buildings. Interesting urban design projects have been realized beside the Main river banks: the Westhafen (west-harbor) area is almost complete with comfortable apartment buildings, remarkable office buildings and a marina. On the contrary, the Osthafen (east-harbour) area is a combination of old commercial houses and modern architecture. New developments are expected in the coming years in this area.

Museum river banks
On the south banks of the river Main are situated the art museum Städel and the collections of sculptures in the Liebieghaus. In the eighties the hybrid term Museumsufer (Museum banks) was coined. At that time four old villas were changed to museums by famous architects: the museum of applied arts (Richard Meier), the film museum (Helge Bofinger), the architecture museum (Oswald Mathias Ungers) and the museum of communication (Günther Behnisch)

‘Modern Frankfurt’
Of no lesser mention are the housing areas of the “New Frankfurt” (Neues Frankfurt) of the twenties. In different regions various housing typologies were built by the Frankfurt municipal architect Ernst May, but also by the architect of the Bauhaus Walter Gropius. Frankfurt thereby became an important place for workers’ housing in the Bauhaus style.

Excursions
Architecture excursions to Frankfurt give one the opportunity to be informed about the quality and charm of modern architecture. And don’t forget, Frankfurt is the seat of the German Architecture Museum (DAM Deutsches Architektur Museum).
Centrally situated in the German motorway and high speed train network, Frankfurt is ideal for an architecture- and museum weekend trip.