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The architect Helmut Jahn is dead. The planner of structures such as the Sony Center in Berlin died on Saturday in a bicycle accident in Campton Hills, a suburb of Chicago in the US state of Illinois, around 50 kilometers west of downtown Chicago.
Photo: imago stock & people / imago / Schöning
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The Sony Center in Berlin is one of Jahn's most famous buildings in Germany.
It was opened in 2000 and has shaped Potsdamer Platz, which was newly planned after reunification.
Photo: Jochen Eckel / imago images / Jochen Eckel
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The architect was nicknamed »Turmvater Jahn«, partly because he designed a skyscraper for Donald Trump in the 1980s, which was presented as the »tallest building in the world« at 509 meters.
The collaboration with Trump failed, but the Jahn Messeturm was built in Frankfurt am Main.
The 254 meter high landmark was completed in mid-1991.
Photo: CHROMORANGE / Karl-Heinz Sprembe / imago / CHROMORANGE
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Born in Nuremberg, Jahn began his career in Chicago with the architecture firm CF Murphy Associates.
His State of Illinois Center (Thompson Center), which the Chicago Tribune praised as a “guide to the 21st century”, was celebrated there.
The complex, built from 1979 to 1984 with an area of over 100,000 square meters, is a steel and glass structure on the floor plan of a segment of a circle with a construction method that reveals the structure.
Photo: imago stock & people
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In Munich, Jahn built the Highlight Towers, a high-rise office complex.
Photo: Fotostand / Fritsch / imago images / Fotostand
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The high-rise twin towers (126 and 113 meters) in Parkstadt Schwabing triggered an excited public discussion about the pros and cons of high-rise buildings on historically significant lines of sight.
Photo: imago stock & people / imago / allOver-MEV
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In 2014, the city of Rottweil gave permission to have a tower for testing elevators from ThyssenKrupp Elevator built according to Jahn's design.
244 meters high, with a side tip and a fabric cover made of glass fiber fabric, the tower has a public viewing platform for visitors at 232 meters.
Photo: Arnulf Hettrich / imago images / Arnulf Hettrich
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In August 1998, the foundation stone was laid for two office buildings designed by Jahn in futuristic glass architecture, which were built in the "New Kranzlereck" on Berlin's Kurfürstendamm.
Helmut Jahn was 81 years old.
Photo: imago stock & people
feb / dpa
