Huge New District Expands Hamburg's City Center

"Though several portions of the district are still unfinished, HafenCity is filled on the weekends with tourists and residents eating at its waterside cafes, enjoying its vast open space and seeking a glimpse of its "starchitect"-designed buildings, 30 of which have been completed.

The spotlight so far has been on the Elbphilharmonie, a 350-million-euro (and counting) project, or more than $433 million, with a tentative completion date of 2013. Designed by the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron to look like a glass wave cresting atop a brick warehouse, it is at the end of the Am Sandtorkai peninsula, and will eventually house the NDR Symphony Orchestra's concert hall, a five-star hotel and about 60 luxury apartments."

Ten neighborhoods will make up the district, and roughly half of its footprint is either under construction or complete.