Fast-growing law firm Niederer Kraft Frey has moved to a prestigious and historic building in the heart of Zurich’s financial district.
Niederer Kraft Frey, or NKF, is moving around 200 employees to new offices at Bahnhofstrasse 53, it announced on Monday. It was previously located lower down the street at Bahnhofstrasse 13 in Zurich.
The newly renovated premises are a prestigious landmark and served for many years as the headquarters of the former Volksbank in the city, located along the Limmat river. The new offices are next to Max Bill’s «Pavillion» sculpture, which was initiated by former Union Bank of Switzerland Chairman Robert Holzach.
Switzerland's white-collar law firms have sprawled outside the city as their growth has exceeded inner-city office space: Baer & Karrer, for example, moved into a complex built around an erstwhile beer brewery, while Homburger headed for the growing western part of Zurich, where the city's only high-rise stands.
Credit Suisse Sale
After the takeover of Volksbank in 1993, the premises passed into the hands of Credit Suisse, which then sold the building for 350 million Swiss francs ($364.3 million) to insurer Axa Winterthur in 2011. The law firm will share the premises with retailer Visilab and fashion house Massimo Dutti, and occupy 6,000 square meters across six floors of the building.
Designed by Swiss architect Tilla Theus, the new office layout will offer «optimal and collaborative work space» between the teams. The renovation work will preserve the historical character of the listed building. NKF has achieved significant growth in recent years, and the new premises will consolidate all the employees under one roof, it said.
