Deschutes Public Library

The Once and Future Pariser Platz

eng

videorecording

The Once and Future Pariser Platz

Originally produced by Michael Blackwood Productions in 1999

61

This film documents a vital moment in the re-building of a city center, where the Berlin wall once stood. Within a few years Pariser Platz was rebuilt, accompanied by an extensive public debate about the quality of the new architecture and the merits of the city planning for the area. An imposing assembly of internationally acclaimed architects found new solutions for the ten buildings that once defined the site, among them the American embassy. Featured architects such as G©onter Behnisch, Kevin Roche and Gerhard Kallman discuss the necessary aesthetic of the new U.S Embassy building and the desire to pay homage to its original neo-classical design while introducing modern elements. The re-emerging square symbolizes the reunification of the city as the years of the wall formally ended in Pariser Platz in 1989 with the opening of the Brandenburg Gate

live action