Starwood Hotels is opening the Westin Hamburg next year in the highly anticipated Elbe Philharmonic complex. Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and due to open October 2016, the hotel will include a 1200sq m (12,917sq ft) spa.
The 10-storey, 205-bedroom, Westin Hamburg Hotel will target both business and leisure travellers, and will include a Westin WorkOut fitness centre and an indoor swimming pool.
Built around a historical warehouse on the banks of the river Elbe, the Elbe Philharmonic complex will also include three concert halls, 45 private apartments, and a 4,000sq m (43,055sq ft) publicly accessible plaza with a 360-degree panoramic view of the city. The centrepiece of the Elbe Philharmonic complex is a world-class concert hall at a height of 50 m (164 ft) with seating for 2,100.
Roeland Vos, president, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Europe, Africa & Middle East, said the company is “honoured to be a part of such a significant cultural project.”
The former warehouse, known as the Kaispeicher A, was designed by Werner Kallmorgen. It was originally constructed between 1963 and 1966 on the site of the original neo-Gothic Kaispeicher, built in 1875 and almost totally destroyed in World War II.
The Kaispeicher A was completely gutted and renovated as part of the project, and will house the spa facilities and conference rooms of the hotel. The entrance to the former warehouse will be reached via an 82m (269ft) escalator with a concave arch, so that its end cannot be seen from the beginning, immersing visitors in a glowing spherical tunnel, and will also include glass sequins that reflect and refract the lights to set the mood for the ambience of the building.
The glass facade of the Elbe Philharmonic complex, completed in January 2014, consists of 1,100 individual panes, each measuring 4-5m wide and more than 3m-high. The windows were shaped with millimetre precision and then marked with small basalt grey reflective dots that prevent the structure from heating up in the sunlight, while at the same time creating a shimmering effect.
The 7,000sq m (75,347sq ft) roof consists of eight spherical, concavely bent sections that form an elegantly curving silhouette, and also include 6,000 giant sequins, which add to the shimmering effect.
While the Westin Hamburg is due to open in October 2016, and the public plaza will be accessible from November 2016, the Elbe Philharmonic will be officially inaugurated on 11 January, 2017.
