Day 9

Today, was yet another perfect day while in Berlin.  We started off the day by seeing Schinkel’s New Guard House, which is the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny.  Next, we walked across the street to the German History Museum where I spent the rest of my morning and early afternoon in.  I found it interesting that the architect of this museum is I. M. Pei, the same man who designed the Louvre in Paris.  I found both museums to be very similar in styles using the glass and the white cement on the insides. 

Inside the Museum I spent the majority of my time viewing the following exhibits: Friedrich the Great, Focus DDR, Fashioning Fashion in Detail 1700-1915, and the War War II.  I found the museum to be very well done and full of materials where anyone could spend hours at a time viewing.

After eating lunch I joined the architecture students for the afternoon to explore Berlin.  We started off by seeing the Humboldt Box.  I find it crazy that this is just a temporary exhibit seeing that the building’s interior was so well done.  This exhibit is simply to inform the public on the future of the Berlin Palace-Humboldt Forum construction project, which will actually be beginning this month.  I really liked the views from the decks on the fifth floor of the Box. 

Next, we headed out to the former East side where we saw the Transformer Sub-Station and the Hausburgviertel Gym.  I found the gym very interesting when a basketball coach gave us a brief history of the area it is in and built on.  It was a former slaughterhouse and there is still a landmark in preservation for it.  

Afterwards, we walked up to the Velodrome and the Natatorium both of which were designed by D. Perrault.  I found it very interesting how they were both sunk into the ground, which is extremely rare for anything of that magnitude.

After that, we made our way to see the Zionskirche Berlin Church that has not been fully restored on the insides.  (This building was also designed by Schinkel, for someone who is not an architecture major I feel like I have seen a lot of his works thus far.)

Then, we made our way to view the Elisabethkirche, which is now used for people to come paint on the insides of it.  I found it very strange that they are now doing this inside of such a pretty church. 

Lastly, the remaining group saw a very neat memorial in Invalidenpark for the fallen wall, which is why it is designed as a descending wall. 

To finish a great day, I was so pleased to find our apartment’s Internet to be completely fixed now!!  So, that now means, I will have access to wireless Internet in my apartment for the duration of the trip!