Elbphilharmonie
Platz der Deutschen Einheit 4, 20457 Hamburg, Germany
The wave-shaped glass crown that opened in January 2017 is recognizably the building Herzog and de Meuron proposed. Construction began in 2007 with an initial 2010 opening target, making the completed hall roughly six to seven years late; cost comparisons vary with the baseline and scope used.
What got built
This photograph was verified against the project and published with recorded first-party, public-domain, or reusable-license rights. How the visual evidence works.
What changed
- Herzog and de Meuron's design places a glass concert hall, shaped like a wave or a hoisted sail, on top of the brick Kaispeicher A warehouse in Hamburg's HafenCity district.
- Hamburg's city parliament approved the project in 2007. The delivery period included public disputes with general contractor Hochtief over cost and design responsibility.
- The completed project is widely reported at approximately €866 million. Comparisons with early estimates and the City of Hamburg's public contribution use different baselines, so 'three times' and 'ten times' overrun figures are not interchangeable.
- Construction began in 2007 with an initial 2010 opening target; the concert hall opened January 11, 2017, roughly six to seven years later than that target.
- No sourced evidence was found that the exterior form or interior concert hall design departed from Herzog and de Meuron's original architectural concept. The overrun was in cost and schedule, not design.
Why there is nothing to explain
The completed building follows Herzog and de Meuron's original architectural concept. Public accounts document technical complexity and disputes among project participants during delivery, but the sources reviewed do not establish one cause for every cost and schedule overrun.
Details
- Status
- Built, and it follows the rendering.
- Where
- Hamburg, Germany
- Neighborhood
- HafenCity
- Developer
- City of Hamburg / ReGe Hamburg Projekt-Realisierungsgesellschaft
- Architect
- Herzog and de Meuron
- Rendering credit
- Herzog and de Meuron
- The built result
- Photographed by Evgenii Salganik, 2025-09-19
Sources
- ArchDaily: Why the Elbphilharmonie Is Worth Its $900 Million Price Tag archdaily.com
- Rethinking the Future: Hamburg Elbphilharmonie by Herzog and de Meuron re-thinkingthefuture.com
- Elbphilharmonie: official venue site elbphilharmonie.de
- Architect Magazine: January 2017 opening and original target architectmagazine.com
Research checked . Status and figures are updated when a source changes.
Something here wrong or out of date? Tell us and we will fix it. If you hold rights to the linked rendering and want the link removed, see the takedown policy.