Saturday, April 28, 2012

elbphilharmonie rising...



if architecture is frozen music, then the Elbphilharmonie conceived by the Swiss architectural firm of Herzog and de Meuron is almost iced over and will soon be emanating from its peaking glass waves atop a former warehouse base on the ever industrious river Elbe...

the Grand Hall is cradled on enormous steel springs and terraced with seating for over 2,000 undulating around the centrally placed orchestral stage - all acoustically tweaked to perfection by Yasuhisa Toyota...

as the colossal ship's prow or iceberg landmark for Hamburg's gleaming HafenCity, the Elbphilharmonie also includes smaller concert halls, a museum, a 250-room hotel and 45 private residences...


[when we were here, there were guided tours to the construction zone within but we missed making a reservation and had to settle for a visit to the Elbphilharmonie Pavilion instead]