Dorint Hotel Tower

The Dorint Hotel Tower is the best-known high-rise building in the German city of Augsburg and visible throughout the city. At 107,2 m (158 m with the antenna) it is the highest building in the Augsburg area and among the ten highest in Bavaria. It is located at the intersection of Gögginger Straße and Imhofstraße, in the borough of Göggingen. In its vicinity are the Congress Hall and Wittelsbacher Park.The building is architecturally similar to the Marina City towers in Chicago. The tower is nicknamed "Maiskolben" (corncob) by locals because of its cylindrical shape with numerous bulges.Origin of the towerThe former Augsburg agricultural machinery dealer Otto Schnitzenbaumer had the tower built on the occasion of the 20th Olympic Games in Munich 1972 at a cost of 50 million Deutschmark and thereby fulfilled his desire to build a "symbol of modern Augsburg". Planning for the project soon faced resistance from inhabitants, however, leading to the founding of the "Save the Wittelsbacher park" campaign. Construction began in April 1971.In order to keep to the planned build-time, the 18-sided interior which houses the lifts and stairwells was constructed from concrete cast in situ and the pre-cast concrete parts for the balconies and roofs were manufactured on site in an installation erected for that purpose. After a fourteen-month construction period, on July 2, 1972, the 400-bed Holiday Inn hotel welcomed its first guests, the 279 apartments were ready for people to move in, and the restaurant on the 35th floor and the viewing platform on the 34th floor gained much popularity.