| The GSW Headquarters complex includes separate buildings, including an office tower of 17 stories, built in 1961 on the east side of the new tower of 22 storeys. The new tower is connected to the old throughout its entire height. (See below, first row, right side of right image.) This new tower for the real estate company real estate company was the first skyscraper to be built in Berlin after the fall of the Wall in 1989. Other smaller earlier buildings are also integrated into the overall urban design including a round building of three floors (see bottom row) and charcoal-colored low-rise buildings along the street.
The new tower with a colorful glass facade has a wing roof--designed to take into account wind currents. "It is the first tower building in Europe possessing a double glass facade which reacts to different external temperature and light levels, enabling energy consumption to be [lowered?] by 40%. The colored slats of the glass facade create a daily changing appearance" (Michael Imhof and Leon Krempel 77). |
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The west facade; the south facade showing the earlier shorter tower to the right (designed by Paul Schwebes and Hans Schoszberger in 1961 |
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The charcoal low-rise structure and the round greenish building--pre-existing structures incorporated into the new design | ||
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