Deichtorhallen

This guide to the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg traces chief engineer Sperber's column-free steel halls, raised between 1911 and 1914 for Hamburg's outgrown wholesale market. It follows the halls through decades moving fish and flowers, their closure in 1984, and a funded restoration that gave architect Josef Paul Kleihues a new use for the same steel skeleton. Look up at the trusses as you walk through, still unbroken by any supporting wall.