Empire Riverside Hotel

The five star hotel and a retail and office building in Hamburg St. Pauli is part of a 110.000 sqm housing and office development on the former Bavaria brewery grounds. The site can be regarded as an urban vacuum where new development needs to take up a mediating role between the different neighboring urban situations. The 20-storey hotel complex consists of different staggered volumes, where the height of each volume corresponds with the eaves of the surrounding buildings. The hotel tower with its 328 hotel rooms rises above the city, creating a new visual landmark for Hamburg’s skyline. From the direction of the water it appears as a slim, vertical volume, fitting into the topography of the famous “Hafenkrone”, the crown of the harbour, a series of impressive turn-of-the-century buildings and church spires along the embankment of the river Elbe. The glass-bronze façade covers the buildings as a homogenous layer, unifying the different volumes.