TUM Tower of Excellence (April Fool's joke)

The final decision was made by the university presidium early Tuesday morning: The TUM Tower of Excellence will be built on the area of the TUM main campus in the Arcrisstraße. The international architectural firm Bond & Partners has been awarded the final contract for its design of a skyscraper almost 340 meters high. 

"Innovation needs its place, and we will make this place a reality with the concept of a vertical university," announced Prof. Hofmann (President of the Technical University of Munich) together with Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, on the construction decision. "The upcoming highest building in Germany and the world's highest university building will create a unique meeting place for students, professors, corporations and statuaries.” twittered the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder.

The design includes offices for 3700 TUM employees and four large lecture halls (with up to 3200 seats), office space for companies and a 97,000m^2 "playground" for start-up companies (UnternehmerTUM).

The concept of Bond & Partners was particularly convincing because of the many places where business and science meet and intertwine. "My personal highlight is the glass 360° lecture hall in the middle of UnternehmerTUM, which will raise the connection between teaching and innovation to a previously unknown level," enthuses Vice President for Studies and Teaching, Gerhard Müller.

Thanks to the generous support of SAP, the groundbreaking will take place as early as spring 2021. After six years of construction, the monument will be completed and, if the weather is good, the President of the University will be able to enjoy a view of the five TUM locations and the city of Munich from his office at a height of 310 meters.