Upper Eastside Berlin

The architects of this rather unremarkable appearing 58,000 m² complex of residential, office, and “exclusive retail” space claim they attempted to find a balance between “reconstructing Berlin’s typical architectural history and creating clearly structured, contemporary architecture”. How unfortunate that this balance is expressed in another bland, beige block which does nothing to suggest the rich and varied history of this important corner in midtown Berlin.

More notable was the DDR’s Hotel Unter den Linden, the preferred nightspot for apparatchiks in the know. Prior to that the corner had been home to the Victoria Hotel and its famous cafe which, after its founding in 1859, was soon the haunt of the city’s politicians, intellectuals, and media celebrities of the day. Sadly, this new project appeals more to the real estate developers and those who evaluate locations by price per square meter than those who maintain Berlin’s vitality and creative spirit.