David Collins Studio is creating the interior design. Completion is planned for the end of 2024.
The Ellington Hotel is once again becoming the Femina Palace. SIGNA Real Estate is transforming the building at Nuremberger Strasse 50-55, which until recently was used as a hotel, into a mixed-use property. In combination with exclusive office space, trend-setting dining areas, retail and event spaces as well as a club, five worlds are being created under one roof across a total area of 15,000 m². Of that total area, approx. 9,600 m² will be office space, approx. 1,400 m² retail space and approx. 4,000 m² dining areas, including the palace. Completion is planned for the end of 2024. All images are CGI.
“Productive dialog, the very best company and personal encounters are today and have al-ways been part of the DNA of the Femina Palace,” says Timo Herzberg, CEO of SIGNA Real Estate. “Its core values are more tangible today than ever before and form a single work of art. Almost a century after its creation, it will become the exclusive Berlin destination for high-quality office space, first-class entertainment and selected luxury.”
Future-focused working in versatile office space
The Femina Palace is being transformed into a thoroughly modern and prestigious office space on four floors, in an excellent location. The spaces can be flexibly arranged and are designed to respond to the various needs of future tenants. Amenities such as an in-house fit-ness studio, conference rooms, cooking area, co-working spaces, and a dedicated court-yard area complement what is on offer for tenants.
Tenants and their visitors will arrive at the offices through a separate entrance on Nurem-berger Strasse or through a passage to the neighboring property at No. 1 Passauer, where an underground parking garage with electric charging columns will be available. Another high-light is the inner courtyard with its abundant flora, connecting the property with No. 1 Pas-sauer, Tauentzien 20 and Passauer Strasse.
Hospitality to the max
On the first floor of the Femina Palace, the dining area, retail space, event location and club, and flexible workspaces are intelligently linked. Located directly on the Tauentzien, the first floor of the Femina Palace offers optimal conditions for high-quality retail formats. The restau-rant offers a high-quality blend of a stylish atmosphere and a culinary experience with the fin-est ingredients. The warm, exquisite interiors of the restaurants invite you to linger, and the ad-joining bar is a hotspot purveying first-class drinks and international ambience.
The heart of the Femina Palace is its legendary dance hall. Paul Godwin and his orchestra performed the latest jazz and swing to audiences here during the Roaring Twenties, and Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington thrilled Berliners after the war. It will soon once again be possible to party and dance here, in a space of over 1,000 m² on two floors, and with a ceiling height of over 10 meters.
David Collins Studio is creating the interior design
The internationally renowned interior designers at David Collins Studio are designing the inte-rior of the ballroom, the restaurant and the office lobby. The London-based architecture stu-dio has been redefining luxury interior design worldwide for the past 38 years, working with prestigious luxury hotel brands such as Le Meridien, Rocco Forte Hotels and Four Seasons. Si-mon Rawlings, Creative Director of David Collins Studio explains:
Workspace Entrance
Supported by careful restoration, the Art Deco tiled entrance really speaks for itself. David Collins Studio’s role has been to layer the heritage interiors with elegance, personality, and function.
Commissioned neon artworks in various forms and locations have been designed to contrast with the period interiors to create a visual tension in the space, while also signalling change, embracing art, and creating a sense of arrival.
Femina Social
An environment designed to suit every possible moment and occasion. Our unique vision for the space has appeal no matter the time of day.
A rich and timeless aesthetic has been imagined utilising a short list of materials, exquisitely executed, and combined to flow throughout the building, creating a visual consistency. Em-phasising the dual transparency of the space, celebrating the street-scene and terrace, whilst imbuing each seat with a sense of belonging.
Through the interplay of colour, form, texture, and pattern, a warm and nostalgic-feeling so-cial environment has been created which will satisfy the needs, curiosities and desires of workers, residents, visitors, locals, and regulars alike.
Femina Palast
Expect the unexpected. A welcome, yet new, return to the Berlin pleasure palaces of the past. The original Deco DNA has been respected yet reinvented.
Peacock hues, forms and textures reveal themselves as one journeys through the spaces and experiences, culminating in the ultimate showpiece spectacle, where shimmering, graphic and grand statements marry to create an almost other worldly experience.
These theatrical and celebratory concepts are housed in a grand hall reminiscent of the past, respectful of history yet timeless and future-proof.
Through performance, food, drink, theatre, and entertainment, Femina Palast will create an environment in which enjoyment is at the forefront of the concept.
Architecture and history of the Femina Palace
In the late 1920s, the fame of the Femina Palace, with its iconic architecture of the New Ob-jectivity style, unique 150-meter-long façade and ballroom, spread far beyond the city limits of Berlin. The building at Nuremberger Strasse was commissioned by the Jewish businessman Heinrich Liemann and built to plans by Richard Bielenberg and Josef Moser. The 150-meter-long building is one of the most important monuments to the New Objectivity era in Berlin. The horizontal design of its facade, with its rounded oriel windows and projections form a seam-less whole with the otherwise smooth facade. Concealed behind it is a magnificent modern palace. The ballroom with a sweeping gallery, decorated in Art Deco and Bauhaus design, is entirely in the spirit of the time. Offices were built on the upper floors.
History of the Femina Palace
At the end of the 1920s, the Femina dance palace at Nuremberger Strasse opened and be-came the number one venue in Berlin for those who wished to see and be seen. It became synonymous with the year 1929 and Babylon Berlin. The dance floor in the ballroom could be raised hydraulically and the glass roof could be opened in good weather. There were tele-phones at the tables and a pneumatic tube system. The music on offer was the latest jazz. The principal orchestra conductor was the legendary Paul Godwin.
Then the Nazis seized power, which marked a hiatus for the Femina. At first, it had to close. It reopened in 1935 and played mainly swing until 1942. The ballroom was destroyed during World War Two.
After the war, the jazz club “Die Badewanne” [The Bathtub] was founded. It became the central point of encounter with American culture. Berlin’s RIAS radio and its renowned pre-senters were regulars here and invited the elite of American jazz to perform. Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Dizzie Gillespie – all of them played here.
In 1978, the “Dschungel” [Jungle] discotheque moved into the Femina Palace. New Wave was in vogue, and “Dschungel” became the most famous dance venue and meeting place in West Berlin, or in fact anywhere in Germany. The list of famous visitors is endless. Almost every celebrity wanted to be seen here. The song “Where Are We Now?” by David Bowie be-came an anthem for the venue.
About David Collins Studio
David Collins Studio is the award-winning interior architecture practice that realises creative and inspirational hospitality, residential and retail projects worldwide. Established in 1985, The Studio collaborates with eminent brands and businesses that represent the best in their field, and with private clients that share its obsession with detail, craft and refinement. Based in London, The Studio has real-ised projects across five continents, include The Wolseley, The Connaught Bar and Harrods Shoe Heaven in London, Gleneagles in Scotland, The Ritz Carlton Residences at MahaNakhon in Bangkok, and The Delaire Graff Estate in South Africa. The Studio has been instrumental in the store roll outs of Alexander McQueen, Jimmy Choo and De Grisogono.
About SIGNA
For 20 years, SIGNA Real Estate has been developing and managing exceptional real estate projects in central locations in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. An experienced team of real estate experts manages all of its activities, from acquisition to completion of the project, and meets the highest de-mands in terms of economic efficiency, technology and sustainability. SIGNA’s collaboration with its pro-ject partners is characterized by its hallmark qualities of reliability, fairness and adherence to deadlines. These values, which are also embodied in the philosophy of the company founded by René Benko, make SIGNA a recognized partner.
The portfolio includes KaDeWe and the Upper West Tower at the Gedächtniskirche in Berlin, the spec-tacular Elbtower high-rise project in Hamburg's HafenCity, the Alsterhaus premium department store in Hamburg, and Oberpollinger and the Alte Akademie, which is currently under construction, in Munich. In Austria, some of the outstanding existing properties are the luxury Park Hyatt Vienna hotel, the Goldenes Quartier business district, and the legendary Postsparkasse bank.
With the projects it undertakes, SIGNA is making important contributions to urban development. In this way, SIGNA not only focuses on individual properties, but rather also promotes new ways of thinking about issues such as downtown development, sustainability, diversity of use, connectivity, and mobility. For liveable cities - for all of us.
