Herzog De Meuron Tower for Basel

updated on 15.9.06, 16.9.06
Here we go again, after the recent post about the redevelopment of the fair in Basel by Herzog & De Meruon, today at a media briefing in Basel their design for the new tower for Roche was announced and introduced.
Roche, a global health-care company, based in Basel, will be redeveloping their headquarters-campus, also by adding a 160m (524 feet) tower; which would become Switzerland's highest tower. The timetable suggests an approval by the city's council by the end of 2007 and once approved, construction would take place between 2008 and 2011.

First comments from politicians, no matter what couleur, suggest that they are excited about the project and really look forward to it. What pleased them most is the fact, that this tower by Roche is a bold statement for the city of Basel as location.

Take a look at some images, the official presentation and read the official media release.

The redevelopment of the Roche campus will cost about $640 million and will include two buildings by Herzog & De Meuron. The 160m tower mentioned above, will gather 2400 Roche-workplaces, that are currently spread over Basel. Additonally a new research and development (R&D) centre will be built to replace the old laboratory.

Roche is Switzerland's second-biggest pharmaceutical company behind its Basel-based rival, Novartis. It has a total workforce of 70,000 people worldwide, including 7,500 in Switzerland.
Roche, confident in maintaining a strategy of growth, created 1000 jobs in the city of Basel in the past years; their half-year net income rose a 37% to $3.6 billion.
Meanwhile Novartis will invest about $1.5 billion to redevelop it's own campus, not far from the Roche site, their masterplan has already been introduced and Novartis hired such architects as Frank Gehry, Sanaa and Diener & Diener to name a few (more about the Novartis plans here.)


Below a visualization of the project:


Furthermore an interview from from the guys at venicesuperblog (blogging about la Biennale) with Jacques Herzog from HdM about the ETH-Studio Basel and their project on Switzerland, which is shown in the Italian Pavilion: