Despite supposedly having a fixed price tag of €241.3 million for the northern port city’s taxpayers, the Elbphilharmonie is likely to be hit by unforeseen construction costs, according to the Thursday edition of daily newspaper Die Welt.
The head planner behind the concert hall, Hartmut Wegener, refused to confirm the figure of €20 million, but he told the paper that the extra costs are due to environmental issues. “Nothing has been firmed up at this point,” he said.
The project – which is intended to give Hamburg a world-famous landmark like Sydney’s Opera House – apparently has run into trouble trying to cool the glass structure to be perched atop a massive brick shipping warehouse right on the Elbe.
Originally, plans called for using only Elbe water to cool the building, however, Wegener told the paper new regulations restricting using water use made it necessary to drill for groundwater.
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