World Port Center
Encyclopedia
The World Port Centre is a 138 metre high building in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

The construction of the World Port Centre was commissioned by ING Real Estate Development. The building costs amounted to approximately 100,000,000 Dutch guilders. The Port of Rotterdam Authority is the main occupant of the WPC, using floors 2 to 19. Floors 25 to 28 are rented to Eneco Energie
Eneco Energie
Eneco, the trading name of Eneco Holding N.V., is one of the largest producers and suppliers of gas, electricity and heat in the Netherlands, serving more than 2 million business and residential customers. Eneco headquarters are located in Rotterdam...

, floors 29 to 32 are built as conference areas and are commercially leased to Regus
Regus
Regus plc is a multinational corporation that provides serviced office accommodation in business centres worldwide. As of March 2011, it operates 1,100 business centres in 85 countries. The Company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index...

. The grounds also cover the Argentine steak-restaurant Gaucho's.

As the building stands at the far point of the Wilhelmina pier it is built on, there is an excellent view of the surrounding harbours and city from the higher floors. The building is also an emergency centre, designed to deal with potential catastrophes in the port area and act as a coordination centre.

Sir Norman Foster designed the 32-storey building. This British architect gained international fame with his designs for the London Stansted Airport, the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong, the extension of the Reichstag building in Berlin and the 259 metre high Commerzbank Tower
Commerzbank Tower
Commerzbank Tower, located in the city centre of Frankfurt, Germany, is the tallest completed skyscraper in the European Union. After it was completed in 1997 it ranked as the tallest skyscraper in Europe until 2005 when it was surpassed by the Triumph-Palace in Moscow...

in Frankfurt. In 1992 he designed the master plan of the entire Wilhelminapier, where the World Port Centre is standing.
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