Yet again the flagship City Palace/Stadtschoss project in the centre of Berlin is again the focus of finger pointing and usual blame-game between ministries and local, state and federal goverments.
To be built on the site of the former East German Palast der Republik – which had a lot of local support against its being bulldozed – the Stadtschloss is to be the centerpiece of the extensive renovation planned for Berlin’s historical city center, will not be completed for another 6 years.
There are still many un-answered questions about the aesthetics of the new building – retro facades with modern interiors -and the original contract with the Italian architect Franco Stella has been called into question. A federal watchdog office has ruled that Stella had not actually been eligible to participate in bidding for the contract in the first place and his contract is now considered invalid.
Stella won a jury-judged competition to oversee the reconstruction of the palace, but after his rival Hans Kollhoff complained about a lack of transparency, the watchdog ruled that Stella had not been eligible to participate. The government is to appeal against the watchdog’s decision.
However the heart of the issue is probably about money and governments at all levels do wanting to give out any money at this time, historical building or hysterical building notwithstanding, so a delay until 2016 actually suits them just fine. The total amount of circa 600 million Euro could well be spent elsewhere so probably Berliners will have another large parking lot or if the city is smart, park for a couple of years.
Tags: Berlin, controversy, history, palast der republik, Stadtschloss
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