Construction
With the reunification of Germany and the decision to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin, it was also decided that the original Reichstag building be rebuilt along with a new dome that emphasized a unified Germany. Architect Norman Foster won a commission to design and rebuild the Reichstag in 1993. Foster originally wanted a parasol-esque building, not a dome,but his original design was rejected, partly due to the unrealistic costs. The design of the dome was at first controversial, but has become accepted as one of Berlin's most important landmarks. It derives from a design by Gottfried Böhm, who had previously suggested a cupola of glass with visitors walking on spiral ways to the top in 1988. His design was added to the information of the competition in 1992, which was won by Foster. Later the Bundestag decided that a cupola had to be built and Foster consequently gave up his resistance against it. Foster reused the idea of a spiral walkway within a conical structure for his design for City Hall in London some years later. The dome was constructed by Waagner-Biro.
Read more about this topic: Reichstag Dome
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
“Striving toward a goal puts a more pleasing construction on our advance toward death.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“No real “vital” character in fiction is altogether a conscious construction of the author. On the contrary, it may be a sort of parasitic growth upon the author’s personality, developing by internal necessity as much as by external addition.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)