Photographs of the Alsterschwimmhalle in construction reveal that its astonishing roof was completed before any other works started. A picture dated 1970 shows this act of daring: a double hyperbolic paraboloid structure; two wings with a combined span of 315 feet, just 3.5 inches thick, perched on land in the center of Hamburg, surrounded by jerry-built terraces of post-war housing, long-since replaced. The roof, held up by three muscular, diagonal struts, two of which are held together below ground by cables, stands alone, covering 49,000 square feet of dirt. The monumental aquatic center’s ticket offices and changing rooms, even the actual swimming pool, were added later. This was building as sculpture: the arms of a swimmer mid-butterfly stroke. Or a metaphor for a city, pounded by bombing, learning to fly again.
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