On the 17th of September 2009 in Barcelona, Josef Unger, CEO of the Unger Steel Group, and DI Peter Maitz, CTO of UBM Realitätenentwicklung AG, received the European Steel Design Award from the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS) for the property segment West of the “Neue Mitte Lehen” in Salzburg.


The property segment West of the “Neue Mitte Lehen“ with 12,000 m² floor space, which was constructed at the costs of 22 million Euros by UBM in the years 2007 and 2008 on the area of the former Austria-Salzburg football stadium, has achieved iconic status in the world of architecture. An essential design element is a structure - named “Panoramabar“ according to its position - that extends into the playing field and is already considered a landmark in the Salzburg city district of Lehen. The enormous forces resulting from the cantilever and the related leverage had to be directed down to the base plate, which would have been impossible without the construction material steel. Also the weight of the roof suspended on the other building side is distributed to the base structure with a steel construction resembling a girder bridge. The main feature that convinced the jury apart from the remarkable architecture was the extraordinary constructional steel design.


“We are proud to receive this price for the second time in a row,“ says Ing. Josef Unger, ”the award is an incentive and will further strengthen our position as one of the leading companies in the steel industry.” For UBM Chairman DI Peter Maitz, the European Steel Design Award confirms “that extraordinary achievements in terms of technology and architecture are possible despite cost awareness. Also higher returns can be generated with internationally renowned architecture than with no-name properties.”
 

The Austrian Unger Steel Group (www.ungersteel.com), which is active in the construction industry, is one of Europe’s leading and internationally most successful industrial companies. The company’s core competences include structural and architectural steelwork, project development and the turn-key realisation of entire projects as general constructor. Regional access to all services of the Unger Group is provided both through its headquarters in Oberwart in the Austrian province of Burgenland as well as the approximately 20 subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Middle East. With the capacity of its two production plants in Oberwart (Austria) and Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), the Unger Steel Group can guarantee top quality and fastest delivery on an international level. In 2008, the group generated a turnover of 250 million Euros with approximately 1200 employees. The Unger Steel Group is Europe’s number one in structural steelwork.


UBM Realitätenentwicklung AG (www.ubm.eu) is a successful property and project developer in Central and Eastern Europe with subsidiaries in Bulgaria, Germany, France, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Hungary. In 2008 the company generated a turnover of 307 million Euros with construction services, 86% of which outside of Austria. The company which has been listed at the Vienna stock exchange since 1873 has its own operational real estate portfolio with more than 1.7 million square metres of property area. Apart from many office and commercial buildings, UBM holds shares in 11 operating hotels with approximately 2,800 rooms.