Topping-out Ceremony on the UN Bonn Campus
On 3 June, the topping-out ceremony for the extension building of the UN Bonn Campus took place. The new building is currently being built on the banks of the river Rhine right next to the Langer Eugen, one of the main UN Bonn buildings. With its 17 floors, the new building already sets an accent in the urban landscape. Since the shell of the skyscraper is largely finished, the progress of the construction project was celebrated with a topping-out ceremony on the construction site.
Petra Wesseler, President of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning, welcomed the guests and emphasized the energy efficiency of the new building. Anne Katrin Bohle, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior for Construction and Homeland, speculated on the new name of the extension and proposed "Kurzer Eugen" (“Short Eugen”) as a pun related to its big neighbor. Dirk Meyer, Head of Department at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Lutz Leide, Business Unit Manager for Facility Management of the Federal State of Bonn and Toily Kurbanov, Deputy Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteer Program participated as representatives of the institutions involved in the construction. Polier Mario Lachmann held the traditional ‘Richtfest’ speech, while a traditionally decorated crown was hoisted, symbolizing the topping-out of the new building.
In an interview with UN Bonn, the architect Stefan Lippert revealed how he integrated the components sustainability and energy efficiency into the design of the extension building: "We have set the passive house standard in terms of energy consumption." Regenerative energy use takes place in order to keep the environmental impact the construction and its resource requirements as low as possible. In addition, low-emission and clean-exhaust construction products were used to avoid negative environmental impacts and to contribute to environmental protection as well as people’s health and satisfaction.
Meanwhile, the external façade as well as the interior work are continued so that the extension building can be completed as planned in 2020. The new building will create offices for around 300 UN Bonn staff.
