Berlin’s architectural masterplan

One of the final projects of a masterplan meant to reunify West and East Berlin will come to fruition when the new US embassy opens in July.

It is a significant step in the 20-year revamp of Berlin during which it has become a centre of international renown for architecture.

The €120 million structure will be the final piece of the jigsaw in the long-awaited reconstruction of Berlin’s historic Pariser Platz, a project which is itself part of a more ambitious plan to rejoin with urban projects the two halves of the formerly divided city.

Close to the Brandenburg Gate, the new US embassy in the south-west corner of Pariser Platz is designed by the Californian firm of Moore, Ruble and Yudell.

The US acquired the site in 1931 but the building was severely damaged in the Second World War and in 1957 the East German government demolished what was left.

Following reunification, plans to build a new embassy on the same site as the pre-war building were delayed by US insistence that traffic should be kept a safe distance from the new embassy.

Other outstanding examples of diplomatic missions to open in Berlin since reunification include the Indian, Swiss, Austrian and Nordic embassies. The French embassy has also been rebuilt on its former site in Pariser Platz, not far from the fortress-like British embassy, now rebuilt on its original site in Wilhelmstrasse.

The largest of Berlin’s post-1990 construction projects is the reinterpretation of Potsdamer Platz. Bombed to smithereens in the Second World War, the area became a no man’s land bisected by the Wall during the Cold War and is now dominated by Helmut Jahn’s massive steel and glass Sony Center.

Other high-profile projects aimed at linking East and West Berlin include the government quarter, dominated by Norman Foster’s hi-tech makeover of the Reichstag, and the recently opened Hauptbahnhof (2006).

The last decade has also seen completion of a number of stand-alone projects that have less to do with reunification. These include Daniel Liebeskind’s Jewish Museum (1999) built in the form of a bolt of lightning and Peter Eisenmann’s controversial Denkmal für die ermodeten Juden Europas, made of 2,711 grey concrete stelae of varying heights.

In addition to the cutting-edge buildings that now dominate Berlin’s skyline, the complex of museums on the so-called Museuminseln (museum island) has been extensively revamped over the last few years. The most recent museum to reopen is the Bodemuseum which houses sculpture and Byzantine art.

The next large-scale project on the horizon is the rebuilding of the Berliner Stadtschloss on its original site following the demolition of the GDR-era Palast der Republik.

• Mark Latham is a freelance journalist.

One of the final projects of a masterplan meant to reunify West and East Berlin will come to fruition when the new US embassy opens in July.

• Primary Source