A year ago, the Elbphilharmonie building was opened in Hamburg

source: http://www.hamburg.de/elbphilharmonie/

Hamburg - The concert of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the NDR television and radio station, which took two thousand visitors on a musical journey from the Renaissance to the present, opened the new building of the Elbphilharmonie on January 11, 2017. The new landmark of Hamburg, whose roof resembles the turbulent surface of the North Sea, was not born easily. The planned construction time extended to three times, and costs increased multiple times.

The building in the city center at the site of the former port, where the HafenCity district is gradually emerging, began construction in April 2007 and, according to the original plans, was supposed to be completed in 2010 at a cost of 240 million euros (about six billion crowns). Legal disputes and other issues caused the building to open with nearly a seven-year delay. The glass-clad "superstructure" of one of the original port warehouses, whose roof reaches a height of 110 meters, ultimately cost 866 million euros (22 billion crowns).

The result of the work of architects and top acoustic experts overwhelms the visitor at first glance. Unique are the 82-meter-long curved escalators that transport visitors into the heart of the building, as well as the concert hall for 2,100 listeners, none of whom is seated more than 30 meters from the musicians. In the white space with rapidly rising rows of gray upholstered chairs, there are also organs with a total of 4,765 pipes. The building also includes a hotel, smaller concert halls, and a restaurant.