City Nord not Listed as Historical Site

In 2002 the department for historical preservation considered to put a preservation order on single buildings or even the entire collection of buildings in the City Nord. This brought massive protests from the owners. The strict conditions of historical preservation would have cretly slowed or even completely hindered the development of City Nord. An office park cannot remain attractive without modernisation. Work sequences have changed in past years. Basic conditions have to be able to adjust to this.

In February 2003, under GIG’s wing, letters were written to the senators for culture, finance, economy and building warning of the consequences of historical preservation. In April 2003 a further letter was sent by the interest group to the first mayor in the name of the affected owners and as representatives for all the businesses in City Nord, equally warning of the negative effects for the business park.

Personal, bi-lateral talks between the senate and businesses supported the idea of stopping historical preservation.

On July 25th of 2006, Hamburg’s first mayor, Ole von Beust, said in a letter to the concerned owners, and to the GIG, that the department for historical preservation had decided “for the time being, not to further pursue single-building preservation in the City Nord region”.

The historical preservation project in the City Nord can be seen as a success story for the GIG. Of the preservation for the entire collection of buildings, as well as six further single buildings considered for preservation, only four remain which were included in the inspection process. Finally, even these four were dropped.

No historical preservation declaration does not mean, however, that future historically valuable buildings will be measurabely altered or even fall victim to the wrecking ball. The City Nord owners are very interested in keeping up the history. Major concerns such as Vattenfall, Tchibo, Edeka, Hamburg-Mannheimer and Nordmetall have invested millions in the modernisation of their buildings, while maintaining their original characteristics.