Thomas Albrecht

The Reconstruction of the Berliner Schloss Reinventing the Center of a City with Modern Technology and Baroque Façades

In 2021, the new Berlin Palace opened on the Museum Island, in the city’s historic center. The building, whose façades replicate an 18th century Prussian palace destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, has been the object of intense debate since its conception in the 1990s. Architect Thomas Albrecht will speak about the motivation and history behind the reconstruction and discuss its design, considering its functions, urban integration, sustainability, and sculptural program.

Jorge Otero-Pailos will respond, offering insights and challenges from the perspective of historic preservation.

Thomas Albrecht (b. Munich, 1960) is an architect educated at the Munich Technical University. After completing his master’s degree at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago under Myron Goldsmith, he began working as an architect at Hilmer and Satter in 1986, where he has been a partner since 1994. Albrecht holds an honorary doctorate from Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK, where he taught as visiting professor, as he also did at Kent State University’s center in Florence, Italy. With Hilmer and Satter, Albrecht works in urban design, high quality housing, and institutions, including 13 museums. His projects include the masterplan for the Potsdamer Platz, a commercial hub joining east and west Berlin, and the reconstruction of the Berlin Palace (with Franco Stella), today’s Humboldt Forum.

This lecture will be held in person and is accessible to Columbia University affiliates with a valid green pass, and virtually. Please register in advance to receive a receive a zoom link.

This event is co-organized by the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia GSAPP as part of the Preservation Lecture Series and by the Collins/Kaufmann Forum at the Department of Art History and Archaeology