Peer Reviewed

Title: Speaking of Places -- The New U.S. Embassy in Berlin

Journal Issue: Places, 20(2)

Author: Lyndon, Donlyn

Publication Date: 2008

Publication Info: Places

Permalink: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7035q3kj

Acknowledgements: This article was originally produced in Places Journal. To subscribe, visit www.places-journal.org. For reprint information, contact [email protected].

Keywords: places, placemaking, architecture, environment, landscape, urban design, public realm, planning, design, Donlyn, Lyndon, speaking, U.S., Embassy, Berlin

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eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. The New U.S. Embassy in Berlin

Donlyn Lyndon

On July 4, 2008, among fireworks and building that represents its presence in the dedication to freedom the Gate several thousand invited celebrants, another land (and which, indeed, has symbolized, and stressed the nature the new American Embassy in Berlin special legal status as part of its own of the cooperation the embassy’s was officially opened. The day was territorial domain)? And how does a presence there signaled. Giant video misty, the rhetoric congratulatory, host country properly acknowledge screens displayed John F. Kennedy and the music by the U.S. Air Force such a presence within its borders? proclaiming “Ich bin ein Berliner”; jazz band lively. How can a country On this day, proclamations by veterans of the Berlin Airlift were properly announce completion of a former U.S. President George H.W. honored; and the video screens Bush, German Chancellor Angela showed Ronald Reagan uttering his Merkel, and U.S. Ambassador famous challenge: “Mr. Gorbachev, Above: The new U.S. Embassy in Berlin, seen from William Temkin emphasized the open this gate; Mr. Gorbachev, tear the northwest. Photo by Werner Huthmacher. historic importance of the embassy down this wall.” Opposite: The site of the embassy between Pariser site. They noted its adjacency to the When Reagan issued that chal- Platz and the Tiergarten. Courtesy of Moore Brandenburg Gate and events that lenge, some twenty years earlier from Ruble Yudell. had taken place there, commented on a stage in front of the Brandenburg

74 Lyndon / The New U.S. Embassy in Berlin Speaking of Places

Gate, the gate’s base was obscured by the Berlin Wall. This most famous entry to the city, completed in 1791, had been isolated in 1961 by construc- tion of the wall, and captured within a vacant “death zone” created by East Germany to prevent its citizens from escaping to the West. The choice of location for the new embassy seemed intended to emphasize the U.S. role in dispelling this era of disunity, discord, and oppression. What may be less well known about the embassy site is that it was home to a previous American Embassy—though briefly. In 1932 the U.S. purchased a grandiloquent nineteenth-century palace there to house it. It was entered from the corner of Pariser Platz, a strictly formed and ceremonially important plaza just inside the gate, to the east, but its flank faced west across Ebert- strasse, bordering the great, wooded Tiergarten park. The building burned shortly afterwards, however, and fol- lowing rebuilding, was open for only two years before being closed again by the gathering storm of World War II. During that conflict, the embassy, like most neighboring structures, was destroyed by Allied bombing. Following the end of the Cold War, as the reunified Federal Repub- lic of Germany moved its capital back Fitted to Place Becoming an active and enlivening to Berlin, the United States pur- The embassy’s architects, Moore participant in achieving these larger chased back the property, which had Ruble Yudell, with Gruen Associates, urban goals was taken by the archi- remained empty.1 At the same time, have designed the new building to suit tects and the U.S. government to be of the German government set about the significance of the site, skillfully greater consequence than manifesting building a new government center fitting key program elements into an independent formal identity.4 In nearby, which now incorporates the forms that would become part of the this spirit, the U.S. can be seen as con- long-abandoned, but historically place. The building has two important tinuing a stance first established under important Reichstag building— roles in this regard: join with neigh- the postwar Marshall Plan: to foster transformed through the addition of a boring buildings to restore a strict revival and reconstruction of Germa- transparent dome.2 Because the Bran- geometry for Pariser Platz; and create ny’s economy and urban structure. denburg Gate is a celebrated emblem a suitable urban boundary to the west Such goals were implicit within of reunification, the reconstruction of and south for the Tiergarten and for the program for a 1995 competi- adjoining Pariser Platz became a pri- the recently completed Monument tion to select the building’s archi- ority for Berlin planners. to the Murdered Jews of Europe.3 tect.5 They were also evident in the

Places 20.2 75 winning team’s response, which pro- posed to make “careful connections to the proportions and geometries of surrounding landmarks and urban fabric while establishing new land- mark elements which are harmonious parts of a new urban focus.” Within the boundaries of the site, the archi- tects have set out to create distinct spaces that clarify and give identity to various aspects of the place: ceremo- nial entry, formal diplomatic meeting space, a large internal garden, and an inviting informal entry for employees and consular functions. Achieving these goals, however, proved more complicated than first imagined. The interpretation of planning guidelines for Pariser Platz was contentious, pitching noted German architects and planners into heated debate. There also was little precedent for a building whose entry would be enveloped within a formal civic space but visually isolated from its more prominent public sides. As both representation of a country and a secured, enjoyable place of work, an embassy’s design is in any case demanding, and its funding subject to political pressures. Most daunting of all, however, was the imposition during design of new and more strin- gent security requirements following the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya (reinforced by the attacks of 9/11). The new secu- rity requirements at first threatened the whole project with relocation to a suburban site. Then, when U.S. officials attempted to negotiate a realignment of Ebertstrasse into the Tiergarten to increase its distance from the building, they strained rela- tions with local authorities. In light of these newly increased security demands, the final project remains a remarkably intact embodi- ment of proposal that originally won

76 Lyndon / The New U.S. Embassy in Berlin Speaking of Places

the 1995 competition, especially with respect to its ability to elegantly com- plete an interior corner within Pariser Platz. Where it differs most may be along the Tiergarten promenade, where its face no longer aligns with its neighbors, but is set back behind a securely fenced garden.

Entering from the Square Along Pariser Platz the embassy completes an urban figure formed by other buildings built earlier. It provides a stately (yes, stately) con- tribution to this whole, closing the southwest corner with a limestone wall textured with striations and subtle color change. The regular pace of window openings is interrupted just once, by a canopy that emerges from a full-height recess. The canopy is arced, with a spirited twist at its end—a form that suggests both as the Pariser Platz facade, but turned is harder to evaluate, because it will conventional shelter and something inward to form a ceremonial entry be supplemented by a canopy of trees special behind. Indeed, beyond the handsomely inscribed with the pre- along the public promenade and a facade is a cylinder carved from the amble to the constitution. parterre garden behind the bordering building and open to the sky, which Referring to the focal rotundas fence, neither of which has matured. lights a rotunda, covered by the glass of government buildings from the Its lower floors here feature unevent- panes of the canopy as they extend eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, fully spaced windows, and a line of into the building. The cylinder also the architects imagined this space as frequently spaced high light fixtures molds the sunlight as it passes through continuing the important Enlighten- adjoining the fence recalls, subtly, the the break in wall to create a shifting ment traditions of clear shape and originally intended building line. shaft of light in the dominant shade classical reference. These ideals, The security fence here is pres- along the south edge of Pariser Platz. they argue, informed both the U.S. ently dominant. It rises much higher Visitors entering the glass doors Founding Fathers and the Kingdom than head height and bears the full below the canopy pass through an of Prussia, to which the U.S. sent John weight of State Department anxiety. airlock under a vigorous, three- Quincy Adams as its first ambassador.6 Made of thick metal stakes, rendered dimensional eagle ensconced in the Whether or not visitors engage that with patina and subtly twisted in a national seal. Made of segments of full load of significance, this ample quietly varying pattern, it forms an stainless steel and assembled with foyer does a great job of diverting undemanding green veil when seen brio, this emblem seems nearly attention from security-screening from a distance. But seen in parallel, playful (though, associations being apparatus, which so frequently disfig- along the promenade, it is visually variable, some might call it “bris- ures the entry to state buildings. obtrusive and opaque, not unfairly tling”). Visitors then move easily into a side foyer, where bags are checked Urban Borders and security screening takes place, If the embassy’s design is clearly Opposite: Ground-level plan of the embassy. before entering the rotunda. This successful as it faces and completes Courtesy of Moore Ruble Yudell. brightly lit and powerfully shaped the Pariser Platz, its effect along the Above: Embassy entrance on Pariser Platz. Photo by space is faced with the same limestone Ebertstrasse, facing the Tiergarten, Donlyn Lyndon.

Places 20.2 77 seen as hostile, even though there are State Department security guidelines creates a landmark, and from outside many fenced compounds elsewhere in allowed a maximum of 30 percent and on the west it registers this status well. the city. specified the largest allowable panes. Rising above the building’s roofline, Functionally, the embassy’s south The pattern eventually arrived at is an it quietly echoes the color of the great facade, along the Behrenstrasse, must asymmetrical arrangement of panes Quadriga sculpture that caps the provide a service entrance and sally within larger openings: the openings Brandenburg Gate at a similar level. port, as well as a secondary entrance strike a beat of regularity while the Creation of this grand room was for consular services and employees. panes provide a more detailed syn- motivated by the wish to have an espe- On this side it fronts the Monument copation. Where they face south and cially fine place for diplomatic lunches to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a west the windows are shaded by metal and negotiations, and it presents an large, predominantly bleak, but intel- trellises, creating which create shifting aura of certainty. To the northwest, lectually provocative composition of stripes of shadow during the day. tall horizontally banded windows offer dark slabs, which it faces impassively. a broad view toward the Brandenberg These extended public facades Organizing Landmarks Gate and the transparent dome of the were conditioned by stringent rules At its upper levels, the west facade Reichstag. The room is also capped regarding areas of glass. According to is more distinctive, notched to give by a circular lantern with rings of the architects, German daylighting greater play to the building’s most small lights, centered on an elegantly requirements called for a minimum of prominent feature, a cylinder clad designed round table bearing an 30 percent of walls to be glazed, while in grey-blue zinc that houses the inscribed compass. It is given a sense embassy’s principal conference room. of ease and comfort by the rich, planar This form, rising from a roof garden, cherry-wood walls that complete Left: The embassy’s State Room has a broad view over is nearly the inverse of the hollow the chamber. Officially labeled the Tiergarten park to the glass dome of the Reichstag and rotunda marking the entry. Similarly, State Room, it has become known the government center, and is on eye level with the it is meant to serve an iconic and cer- informally as the Quadriga Room Quadriga sculpture atop the Brandenberg Gate. emonial purpose. Within the more for its stunning eye-level view of the Right: Mural by Sol LeWitt in the embassy’s consular loosely arranged bureaucratic spaces sculpture atop the Brandenberg Gate. lobby. Photos by Werner Huthmacher. of the building this conference room There is no doubt where you are.

78 Lyndon / The New U.S. Embassy in Berlin Speaking of Places

The building carries on the fenes- responsible for the many fine prints, Berlin embassy, there should always tration pattern of its west facade here, drawings, and paintings displayed in be concern for what a building con- set back from the bounding street, the building. tributes to its immediate context and but with a few major openings. At the how it aligns with traditions, plans and Southwest corner of the site at street Scope, Scale, and Site agreements that have been drawn up, level, the tall, glass-walled consular Responding, as it does, to differing teased out, or sometimes imposed by lobby is vigorously enlivened by two aspects of its site and vesting meaning public officials. Sol LeWitt murals—striking optical in important internal points of inter- Strength of will is a necessary star patterns that fill the back walls, action, this embassy offers neither attribute in getting a large building prominently visible from across the universals, nor pyrotechnics. Rather, constructed with any integrity of street. This high, clear room, third in it posits an architecture that sets thought. But this strength should be the series of figurative spaces within human measure to place. measured not only in eccentricity, the building, is outside the most strin- The design parses the ways its dif- bravado, or disavowal of responsibility gent security boundary and sometimes fering parts may accommodate those for all but also architectural authority. used for public receptions. who encounter them: a general public Restraint can also be a measure of will, The fourth focal point of the in some areas, visitors with focused especially when informed, as here, building’s composition is a large purpose in others, regular inhabitants by respect and imaginative support internal courtyard, with landscaping and visitors of state in others. Its walls for the embodied thoughts and plans designed, like the roof garden and side form a respectful and spirited corner already in place. garden parterres, by Olin Partner- for Pariser Platz; they provide a quiet, Moore Ruble Yudell’s design for ship. In many ways most important measured edge where the city meets the Berlin Embassy is a vigorous state- to the organization and daily life of the green of the Tiergarten; and they ment of engagement with a place, the the complex, this element provides offer a consistent background where complexities of its development, and outlook and light for most of its public the Monument to the Murdered a heritage of investment in the public passages and many of its offices. It is Jews of Europe tenders its message of realm. The building presents the U.S. distinguished by two large Colorado painful remembrance. as a spirited good neighbor, caring for stone wall masses, loci for seating and There have been controversies sur- its own interests, yet supporting the barbeques, while the space between is rounding this embassy project since civic intentions of its host country. covered by a soaring steel trellis await- its inception. Many were enthusiastic ing the growth of vines. about the competition scheme, but Notes The center of the courtyard is a some were not happy that it would 1. Berlin had been the capital of the Kingdom of simple lawn, edged with seating areas. take such a prominent position; others Prussia, Imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic, and Clusters of trees planted next to the were concerned about the role it the Third Reich. tall blank party wall of the adjoining might play in Pariser Platz. Others 2. This new symbol of open government, designed bank building are species that can be have been ready to pounce on char- by Norman Foster, reveals visitors spiraling up to found in the U.S., part of a general acteristics that might be forged into a an outlook directly over the national Chamber of strategy for making this courtyard critique of the U.S. itself. Deputies. reminiscent of domestic American There have also been those 3. Designed by Peter Eisenman. landscapes. It might seem a rather who would enter it into an arbi- 4. The official client for the building is the Office of noble Midwestern back yard, but for trary line-up of buildings by star Foreign Building Operations of the U.S. Department two elements that mark its place and architects—finding it wanting as a of State. purpose: a graffiti-encrusted segment “strong statement.” Certainly, the 5. The embassy was also to offer “a statement to of the Berlin Wall tucked to one side architect’s role is to bring to the city passers-by and visitors on the spirit of the United and a central shimmering steel stele by a special form of imagining, furnish- States.” the artist Ellsworth Kelly. The latter, ing its streets with works of interest. 6. Adams reportedly also took up residence in Pariser like the LeWitt murals in the consular But it doesn’t follow that those works Platz. lobby, was commissioned by FAPE, should vie with each other, devoid of the Foundation for Art and Preser- concern for how they take their place. vation in Embassies, the group also In an urban setting like that of the

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