Quarters

Überseequartier – a New Segment of City Emerges

The commercial heart of HafenCity is Überseequartier. The urban qualities of northern Überseeboulevard are increasingly apparent, yet the south is still a huge building site in waiting

Since fall 2007, construction has been in progress in the north part of the quarter; many buildings are finished. The area's only historic building is the listed former port authority building, Altes Hafenamt. After completion of the shell of the Überseequartier subway station, development of the neighborhood began to push south in October 2010 (© ELBE&FLUT) Start slideshow

Überseequartier is growing into the future “city” of HafenCity. This urban space, covering about 13.7 hectares, will be home to around 1,000 people and the workplace of up to 7,000 more. Between 40,000 and 50,000 visitors and tourists will then beentering the neighborhood – every day.

By 2016, the whole quarter should be virtually complete. It will boast a particularly sophisticated mix of com­mercial uses that is being realized suc­cessively north to south.

The northern part of the boulevard, the most densely built space in HafenCity so far, with a GFA index of more than 5.0, was opened with a street party back in Octo­ber 2010.

An increasing number of retailers and restaurants and bars are catering for the new residents of the completed rental apartments. A large supermarket has opened, as well as a variety of service businesses. They are not only looking after the daily needs of residents, but, together with new galleries and fashion designers, providing important urban accents.

Several major office users, such as lawyers Sozietät Esche Schümann Commichau and petroleum multi BP have decided to locate to Überseequartier. Most of the space in buildings here is already leased.

In summer 2011 the 25hours Hotel opened, hotelier Kai Hollmann’s first project in HafenCity. Across the road from the hotel on Überseeallee (34/7), with its maritime-themed rooms, the new U4 line Überseequartier subway stop opened in December 2012.

Shopping and enjoyment

For the open-space landscaping of the neighborhood, Beth Galí and her firm BB + GG Arquitectes used overlapping longitudinal and horizontally striped flooring of brown, grey and reddish granite. Throughout the area, the open space architect plays with variable ground levels, using ramps, steps or terraces to link them.

The architecture of the individual buildings is just as impressive. The Suma­tra Building, designed by Erick van Egeraat (34/6) with its dramatically slanted façade, is an eye-catcher, con­trasting excitingly with the former har­bor master’s office (Altes Hafenamt 34/5) opposite. Surrounding the Altes Hafenamt, built in 1885/86 and the last remaining historic brick-built building in this area,  is the gastronomic core of HafenCity, to be complemented by an outdoor market. Plans for its renovation and the slim residential tower extension are by Bolles + Wilson architects. Construction of the residential tower starts June 2013 and, after the restoration of the Altes Hafenamt to cultural heritage standards, will round off development of northern Überseequartier. The same architects were also responsible for the long since opened information pavilion. There models and multimedia exhibits have been giving visitors insights into the development of Überseequartier since 2008.

On Plots 34/15 and 34/16, an outstandingly varied mix of uses including residential, hotel, cinema and theater facilities is planned by a joint venture of real estate company DC Commercial, hotelier Kai Hollman, Miniatur Wunderland, Schmidt’s Tivoli and cinema impresario Hans Joachim Flebbe. The project offers gross floor space of around 31,000 sqm on a plot of some 6,500 sqm. A total 125 apartments will share around 17,400 sqm. At least one third of residential space is planned for subsidized living and one third each for privately financed rental homeconstruction and privately owned apartments. Following the assignment of exclusive planning rights at the end of 2012, an architectural competition is to follow. Detailed planning will be completed for the project and the financing conclusively resolved. This very ambitious concept will then fill in the last remaining building plot across from the Speicherstadt.

Pulsating Überseeboulevard

The northern part of the quarter is so far dominated by apartments, office space and smaller shops, but a much stronger retail orientation is foreseen for the southern section, although not development of a closed-in, air-conditioned shopping center type. Instead retailers throughout the whole neighborhood will be integrated into stand-alone buildings, helping to cultivate the atmosphere of an urban center, by adding further to the vitality of Überseequartier as a whole. Contrasting open spaces frame a dense mix of uses: inviting promenades beside the water, generously proportioned boulevards, squares and terraces but also sheltered areas – for visitors as well as residents.

Überseeboulevard is the focus: like a meandering river, it runs from the Speicherstadt through to the Elbe River, interspersed by a variety of urban spaces formed by curving paths and facades. The contrasts are exciting: on the one hand the quarter seems all of a piece, but every step of the way provides surprising new perspectives.

Further to the south, Überseeboulevard leads to the area’s outstanding attractions – in more ways than one – consisting of the Waterfront Towers (34/13), Cruise Terminal (34/14) and Science Center (34/12). But it is above all the double stand-alone towers by Büro UN Studio (Ben van Berkel) that form the unmistakable southern conclusion of the urban ensemble. They will also interplay excitingly with the new Cruise Terminal, for which building work probably starts in 2014, together with its large hotel, bus station and underground parking garage.

New structures

Development of Überseequartier kicked off in 2003 with a two-tier international investor competition which concluded with the sale of the site in December 2005 to a Dutch-German consortium (consisting of ING Real Estate, SNS Property Finance and Groß + Partner Grundstücksentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH). Internationally renowned architects created an overall planning concept for the area on the basis of an urban Masterplan (Trojan Trojan + Partner). Just two years later, in the fall of 2007, construction work began on northern Überseequartier. Whilst the finance crisis initially stood in the way of construction of the southern section, the concept for the northern section, with an investment volume of around EUR 350 million, and an ambitious mix of uses, has been implemented.

In December 2012, as a further consequence of the finance crisis, ING Real Estate decided to withdraw in general from real estate project development in Europe, outside the Netherlands, leaving the Überseequartier consortium as a result. Its remaining partners, SNS and G&P, assumed all its rights and obligations. This opened the way for alterations to the concept with respect to retail, weather protection and use of upper stories, but also for accelerating the development of the Alten Hafenamt and of southern Überseequartier on the waterside with the Cruise Terminal and Waterfront Towers. Talks about supplementing the consortium have also been held in the meantime.