The Swissmill Tower, also known as Kornhaus, is the tallest operating

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

in the world. Standing at , it is the second-tallest building in the Swiss city of

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

History and description

The Swissmill Tower is a

close to ''Limmatplatz'' in

. It was built near the

Migros Migros () is Switzerland's largest retail company, its largest supermarket chain and largest employer. It is also one of the forty largest retailers in the world. It is structured in the form of a cooperative federation (the Federation of Migros ...

Tower, replacing a former grain elevator after the city voted in favor of building a larger silo. The original mill (''Kornhaus'') was built in 1843 on the same site. The site required piles built to a depth of in the bedrock of the

Limmat Valley The Limmat Valley (German: ''Limmattal'') is a river valley and a region in the Canton (Switzerland), cantons of Canton of Zürich, Zürich and Canton of Aargau, Aargau in Switzerland. Geography The Limmat () is a long river located in ...

. The increase of its height to was done by slipforming. This required as many as 60 construction workers processing concrete in three shifts around the clock. The construction took place in two stages. The first phase was completed in early July 2015. The second began in September 2015, and end in April 2016. Mill operations continued during construction. The works were carried out by

Implenia Implenia is a Swiss real estate and construction services company with activities in development and civil engineering in Switzerland and Germany. Implenia is also active in tunneling and related infrastructure construction in Austria, France, S ...

. Adlisberg - Pfannenstiel - Zürichsee - Albis-Zimmerberg - Zürich-City - Limmattal - Käferberg-Waidspital 2016-05-17 19-13-55.JPG, Location of the Swissmill Tower in the upper

as seen from Käferberg Limmat - Swissmill Tower Zürich & Migros-Hochhaus - Käferberg-Waidspital 2016-05-17 19-07-02.JPG,

Significance

At , the Swissmill Tower is the tallest operating

in the world. The second tallest, the Schapfen Mill Tower in

Ulm, Germany Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

, is tall excluding the antenna. The tallest grain elevator ever constructed, the Henninger Turm, stood and was demolished in 2013. The Swissmill Tower can store 40,000 tonnes of grain."La « La tour-silo » de Zurich"
(page visited on 22 March 2020). Swissmill is the largest mill company in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, processing 800 tons of grain daily. This represents 30% of the Swiss national grain requirements. It supplies flour for Swiss retailers

Coop Coop or Co-op most often refer to: * Chicken coop or other animal enclosure * Cooperative or co-operative ("co-op"), an association co-operating for mutual social, economic or cultural benefit ** Consumer cooperative ** Food cooperative ** Housin ...

, Volg and Landi. Critics have said the silo's exterior and height are overly industrial. However, municipal authorities say that the silo was intentionally designed in that way. Its external appearance is intended to express its interior – an industrial plant. In July 2016, there was a proposal to cover the tower's exterior with plants, in response to a request by Zürich politicians to redo the facade. Architect Miriam Vázquez suggested this during the planning phase, but later deemed it too expensive.

References

External links

{{Zürich, state=collapsed Towers in Switzerland Commercial buildings completed in 2016 2016 establishments in Switzerland Grain elevators Agricultural buildings in Switzerland 21st-century architecture in Switzerland Commercial buildings in Zurich