Office Building for HEW, Hamburg
build 1966 - 1969
Architecture by Arne Jacobsen
Total gross floor area 25.681 qm
The office building, which is 153 m long, 30 m wide, and 44 m high, is constructed on a reinforced concrete skeleton and positioned with its longitudinal axis running north-south. The base consists of a basement, a very spacious restaurant floor located below ground level, and an entrance floor at street level. The four slightly offset high-rise sections are of different lengths, but are all 12 stories high. The striking façade shows a clear light-dark contrast between the long and short sides. The long sides are clad in bronzed glass, which absorbs almost 70% of the sunlight and thus appears dark from the outside but almost clear from the inside. The front walls were originally clad in Norwegian limestone, but this weathered heavily over time and was replaced by light-colored Indian gneiss.
