Alfie? Why is everyone talking about Alfie, I wondered. It turns out I misheard. The topic of the day is Elphi, short for Elbphilharmonie, the concert house overlooking Hamburg Harbour. The building has been everything from hyped architectural marvel to fiscal bone of contention for the last 15 years. Planning started in 2001, construction in 2007, legal wrangling over cost and timing begins in 2010, in 2013 we learn that the ultimate cost will be 866 million Euros (that includes donations) – 1o times as much as originally budgeted. Late 2016 the first rehearsals in the cutting edge concert hall lead to applause for the director of acoustics – he’s been a magician.

It will be opened TOMORROW! With a mega light show, real-time TV transmissions and much fanfare when the Haute Volée appears on the carpets.  Concerts are booked out for the year(s) to come, as is the hotel located on one of the upper floors. A Westin that provides you for the pocket change of $3.500 per night with the best of the best, including harbor view. (Truth be told the range is more from the 300 to three thousand, and yes, you read that number right the first time.)

We mere mortals, however, can take the curved escalator to various levels where you can walk around the building, see Hamburg from 4 sides, and enjoy the reflections in the various surface structures that give the building some fluidity.  That is if you don’t fall over people restlessly emptying cartons of tchotchkes that are sold in the tourist trap store,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

or the cables that are haphazardly strewn about for the millions of halogen lamps for the opening light show.

 

 

Lightshow equipment surrounds it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOT recommended for people with fear of heights…..

much recommended for people interested in architectural gimmicks.

Escalator is curved; internal walls covered with a white plastic foil 

 

Actually, this quote from the Financial Times sums it up in a more generous fashion: Sophisticated and ugly, striking yet appropriate, brutal but open, it is a generous gesture and a magnificent paradox.

https://www.ft.com/content/9e14e66c-b313-11e6-9c37-5787335499a0