Vienna has great plans in store for its railway stations. First of all, the Vienna central station project, combining former stations North and South through a spectacular new building, followed by the renovation of Station West including BahnhofCity Wien West, and finally the Wien Mitte (Vienna center) project, being the largest building project in Vienna downtown. The slogan “Wien Mitte – Bewegt die Stadt“ (Vienn center – moves the city) could not fit better. After more than 25 years of planning and citizens’ action committees, design changes and various planning teams, the large-scale project will finally be completed in 2012.

Large Building with a too short Tower

The subsurface Bahnhof Mitte is currently being overbuilt with a building complex which is supposed to house, apart from office rooms, the city’s largest shopping mall. On the 17,000 m² large area, an urban, highly condensed quarter with a U-shaped, nine-story building is planned to be developed, nearly a quarter in itself. The ensemble will be amended by an office tower twice as high. However, it looks disproportionate and somewhat short.

Looking at the history of these tedious planning reveals that the tower actually was designed to be quite a bit higher. Due to the proximity to the historical city center, the UNESCO intervened. A project like this could harm the cityscape, they pointed out. After many years of discussions the deal was a design made by Architekten Wien Mitte, a merger of architectural firms Ortner Ortner and Neumann + Steiner.

Presence and Transparency

The visualization of the Wien Mitte building complex shows a transparent shell of rectangular glass elements. The first pictures from the building site already let one expect a noble design and the façade to be built accordingly. The façade’s grid is broken up by some bull’s eyes. These bull’s eyes spanning across two floors are the ends of tubes going through the whole building.

The two lower floors have been pushed back and are framed by many massive concrete beams the upper floors seem to rest on. Eight floors is quite a lot for a perimeter block development, but the opening up of the façade and the transparency at street level the complex appears less massive, fortunately. Still, the volume and the striking shape guarantee a strong presence.

Perfect Location for Vienna’s largest Shopping Centre

The central location of the area along with the outstanding public transport connection makes the ones in charge expect a frequency of 100,000 people per day. Thus, the interest in rented areas is very high. The expected number of visitors mainly attracts retail dealers.

From street level, you get into the so-called city foyer, a four-story atrium with organically shaped floors around. The shopping mall is scheduled to be home for more than 60 shops and catering facilities.

Were 25 years of planning worth it?

Wien Mitte definitely has appealing architecture to offer. Still, you could expect a bit more after over 25 years of planning. Despite its volume, the building seems somewhat modest and un-spectacular. But maybe this is the right approach for Vienna’s historical downtown. Maybe it required locals and the UNESCO to bring an inappropriate project down to earth? In a few years we will know how the project integrates into Vienna’s urban structure and to which extent the building complex brings new life to the city regarding architecture.

In any case, the Vienna citizens are probably eager to see the project finished, since during the construction phase there used to be permanent chaos at Vienna’s most important traffic hub.