Second tower for Roche in Basel by H&deM

Switzerland is growing into the sky and constructing skyscraper after skyscraper. The Basel Messeturm by Morger & Degelo was the tallest building in Switzerland for seven years at 105 meters until it was replaced by the Prime Tower (126 m) in Zurich in 2010. However, this emerald landmark by Gigon/Guyer did not hold the title for long. These days, an administrative tower for the pharmaceutical company Roche is being completed in Basel. The forty-one-story stepped tower Roche Tower I (178 m) refers to the modernist architecture of Rudolf Otto Salvisberg from the 1930s with its distinctive banded articulation.
Approximately one kilometer downstream along the Rhine, the twenty-hectare campus of Novartis is gradually being filled with buildings by the most famous global architects on the opposite bank of the river. The urban concept is authored by Milanese architect Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani, who set a uniform height of the structures in the campus at 22 meters, but reserved a pair of tall landmarks for himself at the new entrance to the site. And that was possibly one of the reasons why Roche decided that the tower being completed for 1900 employees would not be enough and commissioned the duo Herzog & de Meuron to add a second fifty-story tower (205 m) thirty meters taller, which will resemble the first skyscraper but will be rotated 90º in relation to it. Four additional research center buildings for Roche (132, 72, 28, 16 m), also designed by H&deM, will gradually be added to the high-rise buildings.
We will see how long Basel maintains its title of the tallest building in Switzerland, as results from a competition for a luxury hotel in close proximity to the Zumthor baths were published a month ago, from which a design for a 380-meter tall tower by the California firm Morphosis emerged victorious.

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