MesseTurm Service GmbH

This guide to the MesseTurm in Frankfurt opens with a question: why would a city known for half-timbered houses and apple wine build itself a glass skyscraper. It follows Frankfurt's late-1980s decision to become Germany's answer to Wall Street, the Citibank financing and Helmut Jahn design behind the tower, and the record-setting concrete pour that ran ninety trucks for seventy-eight straight hours to lay its foundation. Locals nicknamed the finished tower the Bleistift, the pencil, for its long cylindrical shaft and pointed tip.