Quarters

Green and Metropolitan at the Same Time

With a green neighborhood park at its heart, the new Am Sandtorpark/Grasbrook quarter offers ideal conditions for residents, pupils at its new primary school – and growing companies

Since September 2010, the Sandtorpark has been the green soul of the quarter. 27 trees will adorn its gently undulating green surface (© ELBE&FLUT) Start slideshow

Am Sandtorpark/Grasbrook is the second large neighborhood to be virtually completed. The quarter between Sand-torhafen harbor in the west and Überseequartier in the east, with its primary school and the family housing around the park, is a haven of neighborly life.

Almost all the buildings are clustered around the small yet popular Sandtorpark, the key local urban element. HafenCity’s first park was inaugurated with a neighborhood street party in April 2011. This green space, with its mounds and a grassy play area, blends the atmosphere of a port with metropolitan sophistication. Open spaces bordering it replicate the design of the Magellan Terraces, a successful public landscaping device instigated by architects EMBT of Barcelona, responsible for the open space concept for western HafenCity, which draws together a multiplicity of urban uses.

Classes at HafenCity’s Katharinenschule school started in August 2009. A total 450 children can be looked after in kindergarten, after-school care or all-day supervision. The integrated sports hall is intensively used after school as well, e.g. by Störtebeker sports club or sports groups from local companies. The building, designed by architects Spengler & Wiescholek, also houses 30 apartments and was realized by builder Otto Wulff Bauunternehmung GmbH in a public-private partnership. The school building is one of the few in Germany to be closely enmeshed in an urban planning context, subject to mixed uses, and have most of its play area on the roof. The building was awarded the gold HafenCity Ecolabel.

Family friendly housing

Right next to Katharinenschule school, the new occupants of the Hafenliebe joint building venture (55 family-friendly homes realized by Stadt Land Fluss) have moved in. Another 68 apartments in the Hofquartier project have been realized by DS Bauconcept/Wernst. The neighborhood is very international. In the Hamburg-America-Center designed by Richard Meier (developer DS Bauconcept), the Amerikazentrum Hamburg e.V. society offers a program of varied cultural events. The largest area of space in the office building bordering the park has been occupied since fall 2011 by the Buss group’s new corporate headquarters.

Corporate location Sandtorpark

The three buildings of the adjacent Coffee Plaza were also conceived by Pritzker prizewinner Meier. It was developed by the Neumann family and a joint venture between DS-Bauconcept and the Neumann group. The latter has occupied the 13-story Elipse tower, the neighborhood’s architectonic landmark visible from afar, since the beginning of 2010. One of the first businesses to move in was the new offshore technology center of GE Wind Energy GmbH.  In future the development’s 16,900 sqm GFA will be shared with additional businesses.

Two further buildings in Sandtorpark offer space for companies: the new 16,000 sqm GFA SKAI building was designed by the Hamburg firm of Böge Lindner architects. Three other wind energy businesses have taken space in SKAI: WKU Windkraftunion AG, Power Wind GmbH and Areva Wind GmbH. In one of the shops, E-Collection has also been presenting the latest concepts in alternative energy, ranging from mini wind turbines to e-bikes. Through these users, the neighborhood itself has become a model of sustainability – although it was not planned that way.

Occupants of the Centurion business center (14,600 sqm GFA) designed by Austrian architects Baumschlager/Eberle are mainly smaller and medium-size businesses. This building, which has been awarded the preliminary gold HafenCity Ecolabel, is being used by project manager DC Commercial itself, like co-investor Wölbern Invest and Dahler & Company Group. Ground floors are used by catering concerns and retailers.  

The first business to be established in the neighborhood in 2003 was SAP with its office building and training center. SAP will be giving up its HafenCity location, which will be used from 2013 by the Kühne Logistics University (KLU), where students will be studying logistics and management. The Kühne + Nagel logistics group moved into its German head office and international IT headquarters here back in 2006.

The neighborhood has therefore been all but complete since early 2011. Construction of a residential building to the north of Grasbrookpark has to wait until early 2013 when construction works for the U4 are cleared away. A purchase deal on the site with a bidder consortium was concluded in fall 2011. It will offer 130 apartments, a kindergarten and retail uses. Work on the 7,100 sqm Grasbrookpark itself will get under way in 2012; the large grassy park will be the transitional link to the adjacent Strandkai quarter.