A new centre
Silently the lift goes up the floors: 21, 22, 23, only at 24 does the digital display stop. Visitors have now arrived at the viewing platform of the dark red, brick skyscraper at Potsdamer Platz 1 in the fastest lift in Europe travelling at 8.5 metres per second. From here, you can enjoy panoramic views over the city centre. Between the metal railings and brick columns you can see the Kulturforum to the west, the Reichstag to the north, Alexanderplatz to the east and Schöneberg's town hall to the south.
And down below is Potsdamer Platz. After being ravaged by war, bombs and the demolition ball, the square was a no-man's land between East and West Berlin for more than four decades. But after the two major investors DaimlerChrysler and Sony spent a number of years on spectacular mass construction projects, this has become the new heart of Berlin.
The first section of the modern shopping centre opened in 1998. DaimlerChrysler – now Daimler AG - commissioned the competition winner Renzo Piano and his German partner Christoph Kohlbecker to carry out the work. The risky undertaking of building an entire district from scratch and creating a fully-functioning infrastructure in which tens of thousands of people would come to work every day proved a success, despite what the critics said. Piano placed particular importance on the quality of the public spaces: streets, lanes and squares modelled on the traditional European city centre with attractive pavement cafés and shops.
A few historical remains such as Lindenallee, Alte Potsdamer Strasse and Weinhaus Huth dating from 1910 enable you to occasionally forget the fact that this is a completely newly built and, above all, private part of the city owned by the Daimler Chrysler Group.
The unmistakable symbol of the Sony Center, which opened in 2001, is an enormous white marquee-shaped roof covering the plaza of the center which consists of six buildings. At night, this spectacular roof construction of steel, glass and fabric is lit up with a kaleidoscope of colour designed to reflect the changing nuances between sunset and complete darkness.
The determining factor when choosing the architectural design was probably the technically futuristic look of the entire center with its 'floating' glass lifts and escalators on the outside of the building, which appeared to project the right architectural image for the entertainment and electronics giant. The Sony Center appears much more consistent that the DaimlerChrysler district. Nevertheless, there are a number of interesting variations in the otherwise highly homogeneous, cool façade of the building: a few historical relics such as the ruins of the Grand Hotel Esplanade have been integrated into the new building, as if they are in a glass display case.