Hamburg-Süd building

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Facade with lettering
Aerial view with the east-west road in the foreground
v. l. Right: Extension from 2016, outbuilding (ex-Condor-Haus), tower of the Nikolaikirche , beginning of the connecting construction

The Hamburg-Süd building is a building complex in Hamburg that was erected between 1959 and 1964 and consists of a 15-storey high-rise with a current height of 55 m and a six-storey office building, which are connected by a transverse building. It was planned for use by the Hamburg Süd shipping company and the Condor insurance company . At the time of planning, the two intended users belonged to the Oetker Group , so that all designs were created by their "house architect" Cäsar Pinnau at the time.

planning phase

The definitive course of the new Ost-West-Straße had already been determined in 1953 and was one of the most important projects in the reconstruction of Hamburg's inner city after the destruction of World War II . This street was intended as a typical car-friendly and representative connection through the city center and should therefore also be the location of modern, future-oriented buildings. The Oetker Group's ideas for its new building fit in well with the Hamburg building authority's concept for this new traffic axis.

The first planning began in 1954 with considerations for an elongated five-story building that would have met the requirements of the city of Hamburg at the time. At the suggestion of Senior Building Director Werner Hebebrand , the Oetker Group expanded the planning in a second step to include today's high-rise as the main focus of the complex. By 1958, all the necessary land was owned by the client and negotiations with the city of Hamburg about the arrangement of the buildings were completed. The basic concept was fixed, it envisaged two houses arranged across Nikolaifleet , of which the eastern one was to be an elevated high-rise that was connected by a lower wing parallel to the canal. The entrance to the underground car park was planned at the eastern end . Several designs followed, in which the heights of the two buildings in particular varied. In the end there was a permit for a high-rise building with 13 floors, a second office building with six floors and a connecting building.

What is remarkable is the broad public response to the planning. The construction of modern high-rise buildings in downtown Hamburg was a controversial topic in the 1950s. In order to be able to assess the visual effect of the building, the building was simulated by a balloon rising at the site of the project. This was brought to a height of 50 m and examined from various locations in the city center. As a result, all those involved agreed "that there was no serious competition between the structure and the [church] towers in the city center and [feared] impairment of the cityscape".

Construction phase

Construction work began in 1959 with the smaller building, which was inaugurated on January 6, 1962 as the administrative headquarters of the Condor insurance group. All the design principles of the later high-rise were already evident here. On the ground floor there was a spacious entrance hall, the top floor was a boardroom with conference rooms that was designed differently from the rest of the office floors. As a specification by Rudolf-August Oetker , the dominant basic color of the building should be a dark green. The glass facade was made of green-tinted glass and the cladding of the reception room was made of green marble. This color can also be found in the modern and simple interior, the artistic equipment of which is limited to individual pieces. The only architectural decoration on the outer facade at that time was a stylized condor as a representation of the company symbol.

A few weeks after the inauguration of the smaller building, the storm surge occurred in 1962 , during which the excavation pit for the high-rise building was flooded. This resulted in a significant delay in construction progress. Since work on the foundation for the high-rise building began in the autumn of 1961, problems with the subsoil have occurred again and again. Only at a depth of 14 m was the ground strong enough for the planned construction, above that there were still around 4,000 wooden piles from the previous buildings that had to be removed. After a total of nine years of planning and construction, the topping-out ceremony for the high-rise took place on December 5, 1963.

architecture

The facade design of the two blocks is identical, they frame a small square between Nikolaifleet and Ost-West-Straße (since 2005 Willy-Brandt-Straße). According to Caesar Pinnau, the design is influenced by the New York Seagram Building , the Inland Steel Building , the Lever House and the Dreischeibenhaus . Overall, the influences from the Lever House are probably the greatest.

The connecting building consists almost entirely of a single storey over six meters high, which is structured by a circumferential gallery storey. Here you will find the casino , a representative entrance hall for the high-rise building and a passageway that originally housed a travel agency and a bank branch. All the building's entrance halls show a remarkably precise and elaborate workmanship of the marble cladding

Floors 2 to 12 of the high-rise were designed as offices for the shipping company's employees. In the first drafts, a conventional office layout was planned, which was later changed to a flexible, open- plan office that was contemporary at the time . In contrast to this, floors 13 and 14 were intended as work and representation areas for the board of directors. Here there was also a correspondingly higher quality equipment.

In the forecourt is a fountain designed by Kurt Kranz . Its water basin with a stylized globe was intended to symbolize the global activities of the Oetker Group.

Conversions and renovations

As with many buildings from the 1960s, the thermal insulation turned out to be inadequate. To improve this, double glazing of the facade was installed in 1979 and 1980.

In 2008, plans began to renovate and expand the complex, including a detailed conservation plan by the architect Anna Katharina Zülch . The complex was to be extended to the west by another building and the high-rise was to be raised by one floor. From 2015 to 2016, the extension building and the renovation of the existing buildings took place according to a design by the Engel architects' office . All old facades were removed, the elements of the representative rooms were stored and the old buildings were completely gutted. The old management floor was relocated to the new 15th floor while largely maintaining its original condition. In addition to completely new building services, the buildings received a modern double-shell facade, the external appearance of which was matched to the old facade. Particular care was taken to keep the original green shade. Since the new facade and building services were significantly heavier and more voluminous than the old one, extensive adjustments to the entire supporting structure were necessary at the same time. All buildings were given the original entrance areas, the representative character of the connecting structure was restored.

Photographs and map

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '48.8 "  N , 9 ° 59" 31.2 "  E

Map: Hamburg
marker
Hamburg-Süd building​
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Hamburg

  • West facade

  • View from the Reimersbrücke in its original state

  • View from Reimersbrücke after adding another storey

  • The so-called globe fountain and behind it the smaller building

  • Building complex with Reimersbrücke in the foreground

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Height information at emporis.de . Retrieved November 15, 2017.
  2. ↑ See Necker, Schilling: Hamburger Bauheft 16 . S. 13-17 .
  3. ↑ Information on the number of floors according to Necker, Schilling: Hamburger Bauheft 16 . S. 21 . For the Condor house, the total number of floors including the ground floor must be meant; for the high-rise building, the 13 floors can only refer to all floors above the ground floor.
  4. ↑ Quoted from Necker, Schilling: Hamburger Bauheft 16 . S. 21 .
  5. ↑ Information from Necker, Schilling: Hamburger Bauheft 16 . S. 29 .
  6. ↑ Press release on laying the foundation stone for the extension. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
  7. ↑ Project presentation on the website of KSP Jürgen Engel Architects. Retrieved November 14, 2017.

literature

Web links

Commons : Hamburg-Süd-Gebäude  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files