Every move a world premiere

Beate Cornils has built something that has never been built before.

"Anyone who builds something that no one has ever built before has to be uncompromising in their demands-and willing to compromise in dialog," Beate Cornils recalls of a job that was to become the project of a lifetime. She spent a full nine years working for HOCHTIEF on the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg – a synthesis of the arts comprising exclusive apartments, a hotel and the actual philharmonic hall itself, for which she was responsible as "Project Manager Concert”.

A unique building is being created
A concert hall directly at the harbor, at the same time a magnificent building on the walls of a historic warehouse. With a double-shell construction, the concert halls are supported on the load-bearing structure by spring packages to keep the harbor noise outside. Perfect in every detail. The wall cladding of the halls alone - the "white skin" - consists of over 12,000 individually milled gypsum fiberboards. No two are alike. Even the chairs are specially developed, and material combinations are used for the first time. "More than once we've been at the point where we didn't know how we were going to pull it off. But we always knew we could do it. When every move is like a first performance, you have to believe in yourself and think outside the norms once in a while."

A house for artists - by artists
Not everything always runs smoothly. In between, the project stalls. When those involved dare to make a fresh start, HOCHTIEF takes a risk with extensive guarantees and commitments, and the team can continue building. A joint "planning consortium" is founded, and Cornils becomes its managing director. The Philharmonie is not only a house for artists – it is also a house of artists. The world-famous acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota - uncompromising in his search for the perfect sound, just like the architects from Herzog & Meuron in their design. HOCHTIEF manager Beate Cornils also speaks their language, because she is an architect herself. Only those who want to start afresh together come to the joint venture. A start-up en gros, and a successful one.

The first notes
The first orchestra rehearsal in the fall of 2016. When the first note sounds, the certainty comes: It was worth it. The future users were delighted with the sound and the acoustics. Then come the tears of relief. "But a lot of time was to pass before we all really realized that we had actually done it," says Beate Cornils, who started at HOCHTIEF 38 years ago as one of a handful of architects. "As supposed exotics, we learned early on how important the dialogue between architecture and engineering is." Cornils has built such extraordinary projects as three of the spectacular pavilions at the Expo 2000 World's Fair in Hanover, Germany, and is now primarily active in residential construction and office properties. "No project, however, has required more entrepreneurial spirit than the Elphi. We were willing to do things for the first time, learned to reconcile artists and pragmatists - and didn't settle for 99 percent."