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VIERTEL ZWEI is a quiet and green oasis in the midst of this business area. One of its quality features is its<br />
excellent infrastructure.<br />
BUSINESS ‘HOCH ZWEI’ The Prater has been an area for innovative building<br />
ever since the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph. In his days it was the largest cupola<br />
in the world. Today it is an intricately designed city project called VIERTEL ZWEI.<br />
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omething special is in the air when one is<br />
heading toward the inner city and crosses<br />
the Viennese bridge named Reichsbrücke.<br />
The flagship HOCH ZWEI dominates and sticks out of<br />
its surrounding buildings with a blue-grey glass façade<br />
and an impressive architectural design.<br />
VIERTEL ZWEI is the new city district in the 2nd municipal<br />
district of Vienna. It has been created between<br />
the famous amusement park ‘Wurstelprater’ and the<br />
fair ground to the west, the harness racing track Krieau<br />
and the ‘Grüner Prater’ (‘Green Prater’) in the east, an<br />
very popular excursion place with the Viennese population.<br />
the Prater has an eventful historY<br />
This area saw a time of prosperity already. This was<br />
in 1873 when the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph inaugurated<br />
the Vienna World Fair and 53,000 exhibitors<br />
hoped between May and November for their lucky<br />
strike on this huge fair ground. Already at that time<br />
constructions were innovative. The Rotunde, the land-<br />
mark of the world fair, was the largest doomed structure<br />
of its time with a height of 84 metres and an astonishing<br />
diameter of 108 metres. A fire in 1937 completely destroyed<br />
the Rotunde. Today, the main building of the Vienna<br />
Fair (southern portal) stands in its place.<br />
The world fair had a lasting effect on Vienna’s urban development.<br />
The entire area became a giant construction site<br />
in preparation for this event: the first training of the river<br />
Danube, the opening of the Vienna water pipeline and extensions<br />
to the train and road network changed the city<br />
into an international metropolis.<br />
right in Middle of the citY and Yet in<br />
the countrY side<br />
The Red Cross, a florist and the ARBÖ (the Austrian car,<br />
motorbike and bicycle association) building occupied part of<br />
this area before visionary and builder Michael Griesmayr<br />
discovered it about seven years ago behind the Vienna<br />
fair ground. The remaining area was a fenced in ‘concrete<br />
desert’. An extension to the tube (line U2) was in planning<br />
only.<br />
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