Emporis

German real estate data company (1996–2022)

Emporis

Company type| Subsidiary
Industry| Real estate
Founded| 1996; 29 years ago (1996)
Defunct| September 18, 2022 (2022-09-18)
Headquarters| Hamburg, Germany
Products| Real estate information
Parent| CoStar Group[1]
Website| emporis.com (defunct)

Emporis was a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022.[2]

Emporis was acquired by CoStar Group in October 2020. On 12 September 2022, the managing director of CoStar Europe posted a letter on Emporis.com, informing its community members that the Emporis database and community platform would be shut down effective 13 September 2022.[3]

Emporis offered a variety of information on its public database, Emporis.com.[4] Emporis was frequently cited by various media sources as an authority on building data.[5][6]

Emporis originally focused exclusively on high-rise buildings and skyscrapers, which it defined as buildings "between 35 and 100 metres" tall and "at least 100 metres tall", respectively.[7] Emporis used the point where the building touches the ground to determine height.[8] The database had expanded to include low-rise buildings and other structures. It used a point system to rank skylines.[9]

## History

[edit]

Michael Wutzke started a website about skyscrapers in Frankfurt in 1996. In 2000 he started skyscrapers.com, which was folded into Emporis in 2003.[10]

In 2005 Emporis formed a partnership with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), under which Emporis served as the official CTBUH high-rise buildings database until the launch of The Skyscraper Center in 2011.[11]

In 2007, venture capital firm Neuhaus Partners and KfW Bankengruppe invested several million euro in the company.[12][13] Effective 1 January 2009, the company moved its headquarters from Darmstadt to Frankfurt. In 2011, the company moved from Frankfurt to Hamburg.

On 26 October 2020, CoStar Group, Inc., based in Washington, D.C., completed its acquisition of Emporis GmbH.[1] CoStar Group added Emporis to its portfolio of brands.[14] The other brands included LoopNet, Apartments.com, Apartment Finder, Belbex, amongst several others.[14]

The merger of Emporis GmbH into CoStar Group subsidiary STR, Inc's German division, STR Germany GmbH, was finalized on 27 January 2021, with Emporis GmbH's removal from the Common Register Portal of the German Federal States (German: gemeinsame Registerportal der Länder) [15]

On 14 September 2022, the entirety of the Emporis website's original content, including the building database, articles and data regarding Emporis Skyscraper Award recipients, and corporate information, was removed.[3][16]

In 2023, former editors of the Emporis website created a new website called SKYDB, a website that acts with a similar purpose.[17]

## Emporis Skyscraper Award

[edit]

Main article: Emporis Skyscraper Award

In 2000, a group of Emporis senior editors began presenting the Emporis Skyscraper Award. Eligible buildings are selected from a list of all buildings in the world at least 100 meters tall which were completed that year.[6][18]

## See also

[edit]

* SkyscraperCity
* SkyscraperPage
* Structurae
* Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Bossi, Paolo (9 November 2020). "CoStar Group's Acquisition Of Emporis GmbH". Global Legal Chronicle. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
\- S&P Capital IQ (27 October 2020). "CoStar Group, Inc. acquired Emporis GmbH". Market Screener. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
2. ^ "Emporis Factsheet" (PDF). s3.amazonaws.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 September 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
\- Sargisson, Lucy (2012). Fool's Gold?: Utopianism in the Twenty-First Century. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9781137031075. ISBN 978-1-137-03107-5. LCCN 2012022279. OCLC 795687185. OL 37266903M - via Google Books. "Emporis.com is described by Google as 'the first global provider of building data', 'the world's database for buildings'."
\- s.n. (2009). "s.n.". Choice. 46 (10–12). Middletown, Connecticut: Association of College and Research Libraries: 1938. eISSN 1943-5975. hdl:2027/uc1.32106017987782. ISSN 0009-4978. LCCN 64009413. OCLC 1554411.10–12&rft.pages=1938&rft.date=2009&rft_id=info:hdl/2027/uc1.32106017987782&rft.eissn=1943-5975&rft_id=info:oclcnum/1554411&rft.issn=0009-4978&rft_id=info:lccn/64009413&rft.au=s.n.&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Emporis" class="Z3988">
\- Craven, Jackie (29 January 2020). "Great Skyscraper Websites". ThoughtCo.
3. ^ a b "Dear Emporis Community Members". Archived from the original on 14 September 2022. Retrieved 11 December 2005.
4. ^ "Emporis Company Profile". Emporis. Archived from the original on 2 November 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
5. ^ "In the Press". Emporis. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
\- "Emporis Buildings Database Now Available". Galvin Library (Illinois Institute of Technology). 6 April 2007. Retrieved 8 July 2019. "Dedicated to documenting tall buildings, Emporis is the world's largest publicly available database on architectural and building data. News, photographs, renderings, and firm data are collected by over 700 editors for more than 50,000 cities worldwide. These experienced authors and correspondents report 24 hours a day on new projects and developments in architecture, engineering, construction, and real estate with a high regard for accurate and reliable information."
\- Batty, Michael (2013). The New Science of Cities. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9399.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-262-01952-1. JSTOR j.ctt9qf7m6. LCCN 2013004383. OCLC 863047511. OL 28510800M - via Google Books.
6. ^ a b Wheeldon, David (8 January 2013). "Gold Coast's DBI Design wins worldwide skyscraper award for Etihad Towers". Architecture & Design. Retrieved 16 August 2013. "Emporis, a global provider of building information, is regarded as an international authority on high-rise building design. Nominees and winners are chosen by Emporis editors – architecture experts from around the world..."
\- "Great American Tower Recognized as a Top Skyscraper in the World". Western & Southern Financial Group. 7 December 2012. Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2013. "Every year since 2000, Emporis' expert international jury recognizes 10 skyscrapers completed in the previous calendar year. According to Emporis, a panel of architecture experts from all over the world judge nominated buildings based on aesthetic and functional design criteria and then rank them accordingly."
7. ^ Günel, Mehmet Halis; Ilgin, Hüseyin Emre (2014). Tall Buildings: Structural Systems and Aerodynamic Form. Hoboken: CRC Press. doi:10.4324/9781315776521. ISBN 978-1-317-69073-3. LCCN 2013043772. OCLC 882771174. OL 37966877M - via Google Books.
\- "Emporis Standards: high-rise building". Emporis Standards. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
\- "Emporis Standards: skyscraper". Emporis Standards. Archived from the original on 1 April 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
8. ^ "The 10 Different Ways to Measure a Skyscraper's Height". ArchDaily. 12 October 2017.
9. ^ Zeveloff, Julie; Grebey, James (30 August 2018). "The 25 best city skylines on the planet". Insider. "The international building database Emporis attempts to quantify skylines by looking at the number and height of buildings in the world's major cities. The result is an ever-changing ranking of the world's most impressive cityscapes. To rank skylines, Emporis looks at completed skyscrapers (40 floors or more) and high-rises (12 to 39 floors), and assigns each building a point value based on its floor count. Taller buildings receive significantly higher values. TV towers, masts, bridges, and other structures are excluded."
10. ^ "Emporis Corporate - About Emporis". Emporis GmbH. Archived from the original on 2 November 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
11. ^ "Web - Database Credits". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Archived from the original on 3 February 2007. Retrieved 8 December 2006.
12. ^ "Emporis Completes Multi-Million Euro Financing Round to Drive Growth" (Press release). PR Newswire. 6 September 2007. Retrieved 21 February 2009.
13. ^ Emanuel (6 September 2007). "GERMANY – Neuhaus Partners invests in Emporis". Unquote. Retrieved 23 May 2025.
14. ^ a b "Our Brands: Emporis". Costar Group. Archived from the original on 15 September 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
15. ^ "STR Germany GmbH - Merger: Emporis GmbH". North Data. 21 January 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
\- "Emporis GmbH, Hamburg, Germany". North Data. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
\- "Entity Data: Hamburg District court Hamburg HRB 120132 – Emporis GmbH". Common Register Portal of the German federal states. Retrieved 18 September 2022. "Date of removal: 27/01/2021."
16. ^ "Emporis". Archived from the original on 13 September 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
\- "Emporis community platform has now been retired". Archived from the original on 15 September 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
17. ^ "SKYDB, September 26, 2023".
18. ^ "Emporis Awards". Emporis. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2012.

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