Großmarkthalle Frankfurt

Here I present you a very interesting and historically important building of Frankfurt, Germany. The so called Großmarkthalle, a huge market hall in the harbour area of Frankfurt, was built in 1928 by Martin Elsaesser. At this time, the Großmarkthalle was the building with the largest surface structure of a modern shell construction of concrete. In the Second World War, the Nazi Regime used the market hall as a collecting point for the deportation of Frankfurt’s Jews. Today, a memorial tablet reminds of these horrible times.

When I was finishing the drawing, a construction worker came to me and had a look on what I have been doing. He told me that his company was going to stop the construction site on that day, because the architect of the new European Central Bank, Coop Himmelb(l)au from Vienna, Austria, couldn’t find a general contractor for the design. The new tower of the ECB is situated on the old Großmarkthalle, you can see the design here: http://www.manager-magazin.de/img/0,1020,331123,00.jpg