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Meinhard von Gerkan, German architect who designed Berlin airport, dies at 87
Born in Riga, Latvia in 1935, von Gerkan grew up as a foster little one in Hamburg after his father was killed on the jap entrance throughout World Struggle II and his mom died quickly afterward whereas fleeing as a refugee from Poland.
A yr after graduating from his structure research in 1964, von Gerkan based a partnership with Volkwin Marg, which survives underneath the identify “von Gerkan, Marg und Accomplice” (gmp).
A view of the Berlin’s Tegel Airport, which closed in 2020. Credit score: Adobe Inventory
They quickly received an award for designing Tegel Airport, one of many most important gateways linking West Berlin, then an exclave of democratic West Germany deep inside Communist East Germany, with the remainder of the world. The airport closed in 2020.
Von Gerkan additionally designed Berlin’s most important railway station, which is close to the chancellery and nearby of the Reichstag parliament’s glass cupola, although he fell out with rail operator Deutsche Bahn, which he mentioned mutilated his design.
Von Gerkan’s design envisaged a vaulted ceiling for the underground part of the station, however Deutsche Bahn, underneath strain to complete the work in time for the 2006 soccer World Cup, selected a flat metallic roof as an alternative.
Outer view of the Hauptbahnhof central station in Berlin, Germany. Credit score: Andia/Common Pictures Group/Getty Pictures
Von Gerkan mentioned Deutsche Bahn had made the underground corridor seem like a grocery store when it ought to have been an undulating, cathedral-like house.
“That is simply pure disfigurement,” he mentioned.
In 2008, Bahn and von Gerkan settled their dispute, with the rail operator paying an undisclosed sum to a basis arrange by the architect’s workplace.