Topping-out ceremony for the extension and remodelling of the Berggruen Museum of the Berlin National Gallery
Press release from 09/20/2011
Today, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is celebrating the topping-out ceremony for the extension and remodelling of the Berggruen Museum in Berlin-Charlottenburg. In summer 2012, this home of the National Gallery of the National Museums in Berlin will be reopened with around one thousand square metres of additional exhibition space. This will enable the presentation of additional loans from the Berggruen family, high-calibre works by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne and Klee. The neighbouring building, a former commandant's house, will be connected to the museum by a glass walkway. The neighbouring garden will be transformed into a sculpture courtyard.
In the presence of Jan Mücke, State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Building, André Schmitz, State Secretary for Culture of the State of Berlin, Ingeborg Berggreen-Merkel, Head of Department at the State Minister for Culture, and representatives of the Friends of the Museum Berggruen, Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said: "The great commitment with which the Berggruen family is continuing Heinz Berggruen's work in Berlin is the reason for the expansion of the museum, which has delighted two million visitors since it opened in 1996. From next summer, this jewel of Berlin's cultural landscape will further increase its appeal and strengthen Charlottenburg as a museum location."
In 2008, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation commissioned the Berlin architectural firm Kuehn Malvezzi with the planning. It envisages connecting the museum's Stüler building with the neighbouring building (former Kommandantenhaus) on Spandauer Damm with a new 22-metre-long structure. Additional exhibition space will be created on three floors, which can also be used for temporary exhibitions. The transparent, lightweight steel and glass construction in a modern design language will stand out from the two historical buildings and at the same time - as a kind of glass pergola - integrate the neighbouring garden with its old trees. It will later be used as a sculpture courtyard and will also be accessible from outside during the museum's opening hours.
Kuehn Malvezzi had already planned the extension of the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin for the presentation of the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection for the SPK. The current remodelling of the Museum of Decorative Arts at the Kulturforum Potsdamer Platz is also based on the office's plans.
As with all of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation's building projects, these construction costs (6.5 million euros) are being financed entirely by the federal government. The state of Berlin is making the former Kommandantenhaus available to the SPK permanently and free of charge for this upgrading of the Charlottenburg museum site.