It works every time. Run the half-baked notions up the flagpole and see who salutes. In this case, it was Theodore Grunewald, coming correct with a dossier of love about Nalbach + Nalbach's Bundespressekonferenzzentrum—alleged forebear of SHoP Architect's Porter House—and a doozy of a guilty conscience.

Dear Guttersniper,

What I’ve done below is terribly wrong in a way--because I do feel that SHOP’s Porter House Condominium is one of the best, most imaginative new buildings in the city.

Nonetheless, because I found Porter House so inspiring, I naturally felt compelled to search out more information about just who, and what inspired SHOP (including forensic evidence in the form of a cool, day-to-night-to day animated gif).

If you decide to run any of the material I found, please do credit me for the research; just so that I can fully indulge myself in guilt. –-Thanks.

Theodore Grunewald

The complete Grunewald Dossier, more links than you can shake a stick at, follows.

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BUILDING DETAILS:

Bundespressekonferenzzentrum (Federal Press Conference Center)

Address: Schiffbauerdamm 40, Berlin – Mitte

Designed and built: 1998-2000

Architects: Nalbach + Nalbach (Johanne Nalbach and Gernot Nalbach)

Architect’s website: http://www.nalbach-architekten.de/

Architects’ Headshots: http://media.archinform.net/media/l/10000056.jpg

IMAGES:

Cool Day-to-Night Animated GIF:
http://www.baunetz.de/upload/bpk.gif

Exterior (Night) Images:
http://swiss-architects.com/db/imgportr/n/nalbach_x1.1.jpg

http://swiss-architects.com/db/imgportr/n/nalbach_x1.2.jpg

http://flickr.com/photos/aguno/6695003/

http://flickr.com/photos/aguno/6277897/

Exterior (Day) Images:
http://www.berlin.de/berlin-im-ueberblick/linkfoto/bundprekonf.html

http://www.hoermann.de/de/de/media/architektenforum/referenzen/bundespressekonferenz_3.jpg

http://archiguide.free.fr/PH/ALL/BerlinBundespressekonferenzNaNa.jpg

BIBLOGRAPHIC SOURCES:

http://www.archinform.net/arch/3481.htm?ID=c9f894aef95749f2c5d5c1f5b6a59867

http://www.germanarchitects.com/content/profiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile&architect=2255&lang=d

BUILDING DATA:
http://www.archinform.net/projekte/7214.htm?ID=bbb44767c4727ca49b5ed99c8f46c596

The paragraph on this page can be loosely translated as:

The existing building is the result of an invited competition with ten architects organized by Alliance
Insurance AG, which also built and financed the building. (and which also rents space to the agency and to press representatives). The Bundespressekonferenz, or Federal Press Conference is a 1949-created union of the Parlamentskorrespondenten, which report on federal politics for the German press agencies, newspapers, radio, and TV organizations. The association organizes annually approximately three hundred press conferences, to which it in-loads representatives in each case from government, parties and federations.

Posted in Our Fallen World