Börsenstraße 14

New Commercial Building on Börsenstraße

Location

Frankfurt am Main
Project

New construction of an office building with two restaurant units on the ground floor
Client

Martina Grigat-Hunger
Architect of record

Caspar Schmitz-Morkramer
MEP + electrical planning

Design: TEPMA Engineering GmbH, Borken (ehem. construct ffm);
Execution: Efficient Technical Solutions GmbH sowie BAUER Elektroanlagen West GmbH & Co. KG, Neu-Isenburg
Structural engineering, Building physics

OSD GmbH, Frankfurt am Main
Fire protection

RIESER WESSEL Brandschutzsachverständige & Ingenieure PartG mbB, Frankfurt am Main
Landscape architecture

KuBuS, Kassel
Soil survey

BFM Baugrundinstitut Franke- Meißner und Partner GmbH, Wiesbaden-Delkenheim
Construction supervision

BGG Architekten + Ingenieure (BGG Grunzig Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH), Frankfurt am Main
Shell construction company

FW Müller, Offenbach am Main
Metal construction

UHL GmbH & Co. Stahl- und Metallbau KG, Würzburg
Roofing

Gebrüder Schneller GmbH & Co. KG, Würzburg
Natural stone

Hofmann Naturstein, Werbach-Gamburg (Trosselfels (exterior),
Ditfurther Kalkstein (interior))
Planning and construction period

2019–2026
Service phases

1–7
Gross floor area (AG/BG)

ca. 3.500 m²/500 m²
Certification

DGNB-Silver
Visualizations

Konzept 3D
Design sketch

Paul Trakies

In a prestigious location in downtown Frankfurt—just a stone’s throw from the Deutsche Börse, Germany’s and Europe’s most important financial center—we are planning a new office building with two ground-floor restaurant units, directly along the inner ring road within the Wallanlagen greenbelt. The landscaped park provides a pleasant pedestrian connection to the Alte Oper, while to the south, all central urban amenities can be reached within minutes via Börsenplatz.

The wedge-shaped plot and its position at a street intersection allow for a distinctive new structure with three visible façades, with its narrow western edge adjoining the neighboring building. As always when building within an existing urban fabric, it was essential not only to respect zoning limits and property lines but also to create an architecturally coherent composition. Even within tight constraints, a new building can— as here—generate new perspectives, dynamic spatial rhythms, and striking accents.

Proportional Design and Urban Scale

The distinctive massing of the new Börsenstraße 14 is composed of four interlocking rectangular volumes of varying sizes. The lowest section, a five-story element adjoining the neighboring property, aligns with its eave height and setback lines. Each subsequent volume rises one additional story, projecting slightly over the southern façade beginning at the first floor while stepping back along Hochstraße on the upper levels. This arrangement culminates in an eight-story “tower” on the east end, which stands in direct visual alignment with the Alte Oper and thus receives particular emphasis. The cantilevered central volume along Hochstraße creates a small forecourt at the Börsenstraße frontage, giving prominence to the main entrance and lobby leading to the office floors above. The two restaurant units are accessed independently from the quieter Taubenstraße, allowing each venue to establish its own identity within the given framework. A key advantage of this location is the view onto the newly created Nini and Carry Hess Square on Taubenstraße, which will be landscaped after construction and available for outdoor dining use by the restaurants.

The Buildings “Crown” as a Skyline Marker

The new building features a natural stone grid façade with aluminum window frames. The consistent design of the building envelope unifies the projecting and recessed volumes into a cohesive architectural whole. The floor-to-ceiling openings are designed as generous display windows on the ground floor, while on the upper stories, the grid tightens with a double rhythm.

A sculptural effect is achieved through the pronounced stone frames that define each volume and emphasize the tower crown. Beneath the crown, on the sixth floor, lies the “head” of the building: a column-free space with a ceiling height of 4.5 meters—significantly higher than the standard 3.16 meters on the other office levels. Depending on the interior fit-out, this space can serve as an approximately 100-square-meter conference room offering truly exclusive, three-sided views over the stock exchange and the city center.

The remaining roof surfaces are extensively greened and provide terrace areas accessible to the office tenants. The natural stone façade continues upward to enclose the rooftop mechanical penthouse, where the conically shaped supports subtly break free from the grid’s formal rigidity. The top of the technical enclosure features a weather-permeable metal mesh roof, and the entire surface is equipped with photovoltaic panels.

caspar.team

Architect of record

Caspar Schmitz-Morkramer

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Project lead design
Johannes Feder

Project lead planning
Harald Bender

Planning team
Maria Urban
Anna Frolova
Lynn Hollberg
Michel Schütten
Maik Voit
Johannes König