Berlin cityscape

My employer organized a week-long conference in Berlin. It was a chance for members of the group from around the world to meet each other and us in the operating center. Of course, there were training sessions every day but they did provide entertainment and dinners at spectacular locations. Three of the locations were even mentioned in Wallpaper’s Berlin 2010 city guide. I stayed an extra day and explored the city. There was so much to do, I really liked the place. So, I will be doing a Berlin special in the next few posts.

First up is a panorama of the city which was divided by the wall until about 20 years ago. The area near the wall (including the kill zone on the east side) was empty of buildings since the 60’s when the wall went up. Since reunification, the empty land was reoccupied by brand new skyscrapers erected by star architects. In the middle of it is the Postdamer Platz, a hotel, shopping, entertainment complex planned and built by a team lead by Reno Piano. My hotel is one of the 19 buildings located in this area (see next post). These pictures were taken from Panoramapunkt on the 24th floor of the Kollhof Tower which claims to have the fastest elevator in Europe (24 floors in 20 seconds). Click on the image to get a bigger hi-res picture, it is worth a look, especially the one below.

German parliament building (with the glass dome) on upper left and Brandenberg gate on the lower middle-right