hugeasscity

UPDATE: My apologies for the size of the pictures I posted yesterday. I’ve taken the sage advice of Josh and just posted them to Flickr. If any have interest in seeing them, let me know. Otherwise, treat this as a musing and go about your day. 

Apropos of Dan’s Vancouver envy, I thought I’d share the object of my own recently developed inferiority complex: Berlin. A recent trip to that hugeasscity yielded the following pictures of public art, great architecture, and a generally thriving city (despite the paucity of white collar jobs). 

A lot of these photos were taken in and around Potsdamer Platz, which has recently completed a massive redevelopment project, much of which was headed by Renzo Piano (the sleek triangular building below was also designed by him). Potsdamer was the busiest intersection in all of Europe during the 1920s and 30s (site of the first traffic light in Europe!), largely destroyed during WWII, and then completely razed during the 30 years it separated east and west Berlin (famously, a pack of rabbits were the only inhabitants light enough to not set off the mines). And now, this.

Also of note, most buildings built in Berlin are required to devote 1% of their budget to public art.

 

Posted by Joshua on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 3:33 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.