Berlin 2009 - Wingender Hovenier Architecten

DaimlerChrysler Skyscraper at Potsdamerplatz, Berlin, 1997-2000
Hans Kollhoff
The highrise offices at Potsdamer Platz
1 is situated at the northeastern point
of the DaimlerChrysler area.
Together with the Sony tower opposite,
the building creates an entrance, a sort
of gate for the new Potsdamer Strasse.
On the west side the twentyseven-storyhigh
tower shelves downward in steps
until it reaches the height of the
adjoining building. Between the wings
of the building, in the part that is set
back, a six-story-high atrium is located.
The ground floor will house spaces for
use by restaurant and retail activities.
The two top floors will form a
panoramic terrace accessible to the
public. The double-height entrance hall
can be entered from both the old and
the new Potsdamer Strasse through
broad colonnades. Each of the office
floors has a central lobby and can be
divided into several independent units
for rent. As far as the materials are
concerned, a high-fired bluish
Wittmund clinker has been used for the
front. The lobbies have walls lined with
polished granite and terrazzo floors. On
the two lowest floors the doors and
windows are made from structural
bronze, while the frames on the upper
floors are in wood and aluminum. The
facade is made up of prefabricated
elements that are one story high and
up to eight meters long, with the
expansion and assembly joints
“concealed” behind plasters and
pilaster strips. The tectonic articulation
of the facade passes from the
horizontality of the base, with the
continuous strips of the parapets, to
an intermediate section in which the
horizontal and vertical lines are balanced,
and then to the vertical thrust of
the upper part, whose pilasters project
strongly from the plane of the parapets
and thereby “stretch” the building.
Finally the crown, which is set back in
steps, is decorated with elements of
terracotta with a golden glaze. The brick
highrise on Potsdamer Platz is intended
to put an end to an unfortunate
European tradition that focuses
exclusively on squat and abstract
towers. Here we have deliberately
drawn on the powerful tradition of the
skyscrapers of New York and Chicago,
which have a decided effect at the
urban level and whose name derives
only in part from their height. Without
the European model of the Gothic
cathedrals these breathtaking towers
would have been inconceivable, nor
would they be imaginable without the
tectonics of Schinkel’s Bauakademie.
So why not bring this tradition back to
Europe, given that the contemporary
architecture of American skyscrapers
has now become obsessed with the
modern fetishism of objects, something
which has already demonstrated its
destructive effect at the urban level
even in New York?