The Weltstadthaus in Cologne faces the Schildergasse and covers the Nord-Süd-Fahrt. Renzo Piano designed it for Peek & Cloppenburg, which operates the department store. It was completed in 2005 after a lengthy legal battle over the structural engineering of the core building. The article describes an organic, ship-like shape that locals call the Walfisch, or whale.
It has 14,400 square meters of floor space, 130 meters long and 60 meters wide, with a five-story atrium 36 meters high. The glass facade covers 4,900 square meters with 6,800 panes and 66 laminated Siberian larch beams. The northern facade is natural stone.
A wood-and-glass section wraps partly around the Antoniterkirche. It won the Deutscher Holzbaupreis 2005.
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