Disappeared

The story of the beloved and hated City-Hof in Hamburg.

The City skyscrapers stood directly at the intersection of Deichtorplatz and Steintorwall. When the high-rises were inaugurated in 1958, they were regarded as harbingers of modernity. The ensemble consisted of four thirteen-storey high-rise windows perpendicular to the street, connected by a common one- to two-storey base building with a shopping arcade.

Since its completion, the main tenant of the City-Hof had been the Hamburg-Mitte district office, but after its move in May 2017, the building stood empty in view of the redevelopment of the area that was already planned at that time. In March 2018, demolition permission for the building complex was granted under building regulations law, followed by demolition permission under heritage protection law in March 2019, and demolition work began shortly afterwards in April 2019.
In 2018, the listed city high-rises in Hamburg were put up for sale according to the will of the Senate.

The first demolition work begins in April 2019. The City-Hof has been a listed building since May 2013, but its worthiness of preservation was judged differently by different parts of politics, administration and the public.

A few weeks later, only nibbled buildings remain. In the future, a three-part building complex is to be erected, in which offices and flats are planned in addition to a hotel with 200 rooms. On the ground floor there will be shops, galleries, restaurants and a day-care centre.