British Architect Unveils Project to Revamp Berlin Museums

BERLIN (Agence France-Presse)—British architect David Chipperfield on June 27 unveiled plans to complete the renovation of Berlin's Museum Island, which was damaged and fell into neglect during World War II and the communist division of the capital.

Chipperfield showed journalists plans for a new building called the James Simon Gallery which is designed to link five major museums on the island in the Spree River and form the main entry point for visitors.

The gallery, which takes its name from a well-known Jewish patron of the arts, will be attached to the Pergamon Museum, one of Berlin's biggest tourist attractions.

It will cost about $98 million and be completed in 2012, Chipperfield said.

He said the gallery would blend in with the architectural design of the museums and house a conference centre and shops.

The architect is also overseeing renovations at the Pergamon to restore the facade to its pre-war glory and modernize the interior of the museum, which counts a reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate from Babylon comprising stones from the original among its treasures.

The Museum Island was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999 and also houses the Bode Museum, die Alte Nationalgalerie, the Neues Museum, and the Altes Museum, which currently holds a prized 3,400-year-old Egyptian bust of Nefertiti.

The museums occupy the northern part of the island, which was designated an area dedicated to art by King Frederick William IV of Prussia in the 19th century.

The island is situated in the former East Berlin and still bore the scars of the war-time bombings after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Since then, the government has spent hundreds of millions of euros to restore the museums.

Berlin city authorities expect the island to become the world's biggest museum complex once Chipperfield's project is completed, and to attract four million visitors per year, rivaling the Louvre in Paris.