| |
Kaiser Wilhelm Allee in Leverkusen, Germany –
an address with a rich tradition. Anyone who comes to visit
Bayer ends up driving down this street – and undertaking
a journey back in time through the company’s history.
A story told by the buildings on Kaiser Wilhelm Allee.
On the right lies the first administrative headquarters building
constructed in 1912, when “Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedr.
Bayer & Co. AG” moved from Wuppertal to the banks
of the Rhine River. Both the reddish sandstone facade with
its elaborate frieze and the magnificent ornaments and fine
materials found in the building’s interior testify to
the self-confidence of an aspiring global company, reflecting
the spirit of the age.
 |
A bird’s-eye view shows
how the new building blends harmoniously into Carl Duisberg
Park. |
The famous Bayer high-rise building on the left side of Kaiser
Wilhelm Allee makes a much different impression, but is every
bit as authentic for its era. At the beginning of 1963, sections
of the Board of Management moved into the new building together
with more than 2,000 staff members. Its post-modern architecture,
symbolizing the latter years of Germany’s economic miracle,
sent a clear message: “reach for the sky.” The former
Bayer Group headquarters towers 122 meters above the ground
– but not for much longer. Because the structure no longer
satisfies current safety standards, it is scheduled for demolition
in the near future.
 |
An eye-catching fountain
with the Bayer Cross adorns the courtyard of the half-oval.
|
Forty years later Bayer is presenting a new
face to the world. The new Bayer is ready to go – with
a simpler, market-oriented structure and clearly defined responsibilities.
The architectural design of the new Group headquarters represents
the core message of the company’s current structure: with
its transparency and openness, the building underscores Bayer’s
cosmopolitan, future-oriented attitude and its role as a global
player in the 21st century.
It took only 27 months to build this technological and architectural
masterpiece in the immediate vicinity of the first administrative
building dating from 1912 and the high-rise headquarters from
the 1960s. The four-story-high, 185-meter-long building with
more than 23,000 square meters of floor space and a building
volume of 104,000 cubic meters serves as the headquarters for
Bayer’s Group Management Board and the Corporate Center,
and thus for the service units that immediately support the
Board of Management.
more >>
|
|
|
