Construction starts on the Cremon 1 residential and commercial building
Based on a 2016 feasibility study, the architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp), in cooperation with developers Quest Investment Partners, were able to persuade the City of Hamburg to develop a residential and commercial building on the vacant plot at Cremon 1. With construction work having started in April 2019, it will now be possible to fill this site in the old city that has been vacant for a long time. In future, Cremon 1, together with the Haus der Seefahrt opposite, will once again form the portal that marks the entrance to the Fleet.
The last remaining historic warehouses can be found at Deichstrasse along the Nikolaifleet in Hamburg’s old city, in direct proximity to the entrance to the Binnenhafen. However, most other buildings on the roads along the canal are office buildings of a later date. Whilst on the Deichstrasse side the Haus der Seefahrt at Hohe Brücke marks the entrance to the Binnenhafen, the plot at the end of am Cremon on the opposite bank has stood vacant since the 1960s.
In order to re-establish the original urban design idea of a portal marking the entrance to the Nikolaifleet, the architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) together with Quest Investment Partners produced a feasibility study in 2016 in which they proposed to the City of Hamburg that a residential and commercial building be built on the vacant plot as a counterpart to the Haus der Seefahrt on the opposite bank.
The design for Cremon 1 in part reflects the Haus der Seefahrt with its sandstone facades, reinterpreting its facade proportions with projecting oriels and slender lesenes. The building also completes the existing development of the Cremon 3 office building from the 1970s, the design replicating its sculptural facade relief and the number of floors. In a symbolic dialog with the bronze sculpture of Hammonia at the Haus der Seefahrt, the new building at the south-western corner will feature the bronze sculpture of Neptune that has been preserved from the old Neptunhaus. In this way, the Hammonia and Neptune sculptures at the Haus der Seefahrt and the new Neptunhaus that form the portal at the entrance of the former Binnenhafen where it joins the Nikolaifleet, on both sides of Hohe Brücke, will become a symbol of the early historic connectedness of the Hanseatic City with the world’s oceans.
Completion of the shell construction is scheduled for December 2019 and completion of the project for the summer of 2020.
