Gross Floor Area: 145.000 square meters
Types of Use: Offices, Retail
Masterplan Architecture: Oswald Mathias Ungers
Size of the Project Team: 4 Employees

Between 1997 and 2003, Hühne Development Services managed a major part of this important area of the city. Our aim was to create the best possible conditions for its future development.

Lehrter Stadtquartier had the potential to compete with other top Berlin locations, such as Potsdamer Platz. Its prerequisites were excellent and included its location on the banks of the River Spree, just opposite the chancellery, and a unique transportation infrastructure that includes Berlin’s main railway station and a direct train link to Berlin’s forthcoming international airport.

Our work focused on improving the zoning requirements and initiating test designs for prospective buildings to identify the best positions for shops, eateries, underground garage entrances, delivery points etc. which along with numerous other criterions were to become part of an official design guideline to be agreed upon with Berlin authorities to ensure coherent minimum standards for all buildings.

On the plots for which we were responsible (marked in red) we proposed high quality office buildings, with hotels, apartments and cultural buildings to be concentrated along the waterfront of Humboldt Harbour.

We also helped shape the design and timelines for the construction of roads and public spaces. The design of Washingtonplatz, between Hauptbahnhof and the River Spree, for instance, was chosen in a competition initiated by us and won by the internationally acclaimed landscape architect Martha Schwartz, from Cambridge, USA. The fabulous initial design has since been scaled down substantially, one of many reasons why this outstanding location has failed to meet its potential.