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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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