How it started
Helios lobbed over a tidy package on a Wednesday afternoon:
2 · What hit our inbox
- 2D plans + elevations (straight from the plotter, still smelled like toner)
- Geo pin on the north bank of the Main River – “match the real sun, please”
- Finish schedule for glass, metal, lobby stone, the works
- Boards full of furniture inspo, planting palettes, lighting moods
- A single ask: *make the tower look like it already lives in Frankfurt*
We had six days. Coffee was made. Tabs were opened.
Proof-of-life pass
Before diving into shiny materials, we slapped the raw geometry—no textures, no drama—into the city block and fired off four viewpoints.
Those quick tweaks meant zero heartbreak later.
3 · Dialing in reality
*Landscape* pulled real tree species from Helios’ planting list (plane trees, lindens, birch).
*Lighting*: mid-June, 6:30 AM for the hero; 7:15 PM golden hour for the side/front views.
- Glass & steel were built from the spec sheet—correct IOR, faint bluish tint, subtle vertical mullion shadows.
- Landscape pulled real tree species from Helios’ planting list (plane trees, lindens, birch).
- Lighting - mid-June, 6:30 AM for the hero; 7:15 PM golden hour for the side/front views.
Small wins that no one notices but everyone feels: taxi reflections in the glazing, tram blur on the quay, a couple arguing over a map near the river steps.
5 · Outcomes we’re still bragging about
- City review board signed off massing and facade in *one* sitting (rare).
- Hero image headlined a FAZ architecture piece—free PR for Helios.
- Three new Frankfurt developers slid into Helios’ inbox the same week.
- Our studio? We slept like babies… after the coffee wore off.
6 · Takeaway
Photoreal isn’t a slider; it’s 200 tiny decisions. Show the bones first, earn trust, then layer in life until no one asks “Is this CGI?”—they just start planning the ribbon-cutting.