Over the past three years, we have made considerable efforts in preparing this competition and seeing it through to its successful conclusion last week. This process has involved not only our own experts, but also external consultants. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them for the quality of their work and their genuine commitment to this project. We also very much appreciated the good working relations with the City of Frankfurt authorities, which were of great assistance, and we look forward to continuing this excellent cooperation. We would also like to thank again all the architects who took part in the competition and submitted such a great variety of design proposals. We are especially grateful to the three prize-winning architectural offices which participated in the revision phase of the competition. Over the past 11 months, they have gone into substantial depth to elaborate the details of their design proposals. The high quality and professionalism of the work done in the revision phase was very much appreciated by the Governing Council. The Governing Council’s decision on the design of the ECB’s premises was reached after extensive discussion and careful evaluation of the prize-winning designs. As a public institution, we are committed to performing our tasks effectively and to using our financial resources prudently. Therefore, it was essential to have a thorough and comprehensive assessment - even if that prolonged the process somewhat - so as to make the right decision on a matter of such symbolic and financial importance.
The final decision on the design concept to be implemented was made on the basis of the revised concepts and the criteria laid down in the Competition Rules. In the Revision Phase each of the three teams has gone into depth of research and development, reaching a level of design for a new premises which would be suitable for the ECB and could be realistically constructed. I would like to thank them for their work and have great respect for what they have created. Each design proposal is unique in its own way. As we will, of course, only build one design, we, my colleagues from the Governing Council and myself, had then the difficult/challenging task to choose one of the revised design proposals. BIS Review 5/2005  1  We had then great pleasure to confirm the Jury’s proposal and to announce Coop Himmelb(l)au as the winning architect of the international urban planning and architectural design competition for the new ECB premises. I would like to ask now Mr. Papademos, as he was also the Chairperson of the international jury of the competition, to present the main elements of the Governing Council decision for the chosen design of Coop Himmelb(l)au.. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, The Governing Council’s decision on the winning design concluded the international urban planning and architectural design competition for the ECB’s new premises. This means that a major step towards building a new, permanent home for the ECB here in Frankfurt has been completed.