Aupark Tower is a controversial high-rise building in Bratislava

Bratislava

Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...

 located in the district of Petržalka

Petržalka

Petržalka ) is the largest borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Situated on the right bank of the river Danube, it is home to approximately 150,000 people.-History:Historical records of Petržalka exist from 1225...

 which is a part of the shopping center Aupark

Aupark

Aupark is a shopping centre in the Petržalka borough of Bratislava, Slovakia. It was the second modern shopping centre in Bratislava, built a few years after Polus City Center...

. It has been built by HB Reavis Group company in 2007. The building offers office space for rent, currently, its main tennants include Telefónica O2 Slovakia

Telefónica O2 Slovakia

Telefónica Slovakia is a provider of mobile service O2 in Slovakia. Telefónica started in Slovakia with commercial services on 2 February 2007 with about 600.000 preregistered users, and ~400,000 Slovaks actively using the O2 service. The operator has 781,000 active SIM cards to date 30...

, Eset

Eset

ESET is an IT security company head-quartered in Bratislava, Slovakia that was founded in 1992 by the merger of two private companies. The company was awarded as the most successful Slovak company in 2008, 2009 and 2010...

 and MBank

MBank

mBank is a Polish direct bank, part of BRE Bank . mBank was launched as a greenfield venture in 2000 and started its operations on November 26, 2000. 10 years later it had acquired 2.5 million customers and had 14 billion PLN deposits and 13.1 billion PLN in loans...

.

History

The construction began in 2006, the framework was completed in the beginning of 2007 and it was completely finished at the end of 2007.

The building was approved by then mayor of Petržalka

Petržalka

Petržalka ) is the largest borough of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Situated on the right bank of the river Danube, it is home to approximately 150,000 people.-History:Historical records of Petržalka exist from 1225...

 Vladimír Bajan, but the mayor of Bratislava Andrej Ďurkovský

Andrej Durkovský

Andrej Ďurkovský is a Slovak politician and former member of the Christian Democratic Movement . After being elected the Mayor of Bratislava twice – from 2002 to 2010 – he was elected into the National Council of the Slovak Republic in the Slovak parliamentary election, 2010...

 is also commonly blamed, indirectly also together with the Bratislava main architect Štefan Šlachta.

It has staged shape and height of 96 meters, 22 floors and there were proposals to reduce it to 15 floors in order to allegedly save the panorama of Bratislava. The HB Reavis Group company was offered to buy some lucrative ground on the Petržalka Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

-riverbank between the Old Bridge and the Apollo Bridge for favorable cost. This solution was not realized, however, as it was decided that it would have been unprofitable for the city.

Controversy

Aupark Tower destroyed a great number of Bratislava silhouettes. Due to its height and location, many pictures in the historical Old Town

Old Town, Bratislava

The Old Town of Bratislava is the historic center and one of the boroughs of Bratislava, in the Bratislava Region of Slovakia. It is coextensive with the smallest Slovak administrative district by area, Bratislava I. It contains the small, but preserved medieval city center, Bratislava Castle and...

 cannot be taken without including this structure. The opponents of this building argued also by the immediate vicinity of the New bridge

Nový Most

Nový Most is a road bridge over the Danube in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. It is the 32nd-tallest, and thus shortest, member of the World Federation of Great Towers, and is the only bridge to be a member...

and by the building optically devaluing the Aupark (Sad Janka Kráľa) locality.