Archive: The Capital City of Berlin - Documentation

After the urban planning for the Hauptbahnhof and for the city quarter had been finalised, a further design competition for the public space around the station forecourts was held 1998, to which ten architecture and landscape architecture offices were invited.

The winners of the first Prize were the landscape architects Martha Schwartz and Gabriele Kiefer. Their proposal takes up the orientation of the station building and the orthogonally arranged blocks of the government buildings and continues them in various design elements on the forecourts. This is particularly clear on Washingtonplatz, where a plateau in front of the main south entrance extends the base lines of the station building before being confined by steps. A cluster of trees in the west, a linear sculpture and various seats are all aligned with the lines of the building.

The square serves as an urban appetiser before reaching the Parliamentary and Government Quarter. The Gustav-Heinemann-Brücke is used to make the connection to the opposite bank of the Spree with the Spreebogenpark and the federal buildings. At the same time, the square forms a representative transition to the surrounding buildings. For travellers and visitors it is a popular place to pause and at the same time the centre of the new Lehrter city quarter.