Hamburg's Harbor of Hope

In the coming years, HafenCity will rise on the banks of the Elbe, offering the city a rare opportunity to completely reshape its downtown area and -- officials hope -- bring it on par with European metropolises like Barcelona and London.

"Compared to other European cities, people have only a vague idea of what Hamburg is about," said Jürgen Bruns-Berentelg, who heads the public corporation in charge of the project.  

"This gives us the chance to build a whole new city center," he said.

The goal is to follow in the successful footsteps of waterfront redevelopment projects in London's docklands and Amsterdam's east harbor. The shift in the shipping industry in recent decades towards containerization changed the land-use needs of ports, leaving a wide swath. of former shipyards free for development.

Glass buildings and a masterpiece

In Hamburg, the harbor authorities in 1997 traded away a wrench-shaped island on the Elbe River just off the traditional city center for container storage space on the other side of the channel. In the past two years, modern buildings of glass and steel have begun to grow in the former shipyards, just a few blocks away from the deep-red brick 19th and early 20th century warehouses still inhabited by Oriental carpet dealers.

Each is built by a different investor and different architect: HafenCity planners don't want to make the project's fate too dependent on a handful of companies or real estate investors. Bruns-Berentelg said the strategy will protect the area in uncertain economic times and ensure "that each part of the Hafencity will have a different identity."

In addition to business, living and retail space, Bruns-Berentelg said a school, a maritime science museum and an aquarium will also be built. The crown jewel of the project is a soaring concert hall, luxury hotel and residential complex built by star architects Herzog and de Meuron. If Hamburg city officials give their approval in June, the building will perch 37 meters in the air on top of a traditional warehouse building.

"It will be a modern building, built on the bedrock of the past in Hamburg," Bruns-Berentelg said.

Taking its time

At the moment, HafenCity is not much more than a promise of things to come. Developers are busy raising the street level from 4.5 meters above sea level to 7.5 meters, in order to guard against flooding.

The aerial maps show computer-rendered buildings in surprising detail, but only a quarter of the project will be finished by 2007. The measured pace of development is a smart strategy, said Dieter Läpple, a city development professor at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg.

"The big advantage is that it is flexible. It is being built in steps, so that they can learn from their mistakes," said Läpple, an initial opponent of the project.

HafenCity has already begun learning from others. Rather than concentrating on just business space, as in the Docklands, or housing, as in the redevelopment of Amsterdam's eastern docks, planners opted for the mixed-use model.

The project has taken great strides since its conception, Läpple said. Originally, planners had designed the development with singles and young couples in mind, something that Bruns-Berentelg says wouldn't have realized the full potential of the new city center.

A new type of resident

Unlike Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, which he was involved in shaping, Bruns-Berentelg doesn't see Hafencity as a temporary respite for international jet-setters. The plan here is to pull older residents as well as those from Hamburg's swankier suburbs into the city center, giving it a little life after dark.

"We almost have to discover a whole new resident," he said. "You have to be a bit of a pioneer to live here. It's more raw here, the wind is a bit harsher."

None of that has seemed to bother Claus and Monika Andresen. The couple had lived on prime real estate near an inland lake before deciding to look a little further outside of the city. They came to Hafencity last summer on a lark and within months of seeing their building, bought a 104-square-meter apartment.

"If you want to have a relationship to the water, which is one of Hamburg's greatest charms, and not leave the city, this is perfect," said Claus Andresen, whose office at the hospitality sales agency iSe is within walking distance.

Questions remain

Most of the 130 finished apartments have been bought and occupied, said Hafencity officials. An additional 650 units will be built in the coming year. By the time the project is complete, 5,500 apartments will have been built.

"It's a fantastic lifestyle down here," said Monika Andresen, who heads the ad sales department at one of Germany's major Sunday newspapers. "At the same time, it's a great investment for the future."

Hafencity project planners have so far won more than 150 investors for the project, but not all the buildings have broken ground yet. There are still questions as to when and how the necessary transit infrastructure will be built. At the moment, a bus line snakes around the island. A new subway line will be built by 2012.

"There are structural problems that still need to be solved," Läpple said.

But even the former skeptic sees gold in the project, if it's pulled off correctly.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to correct the big deficits of the city center, in which a very strong monoculture exists. It is not a vital center, like in Vienna or Paris," Läpple said. "The Hafencity could give the entire center new impulses."