11/28/2006

Architect Wins Court Case

Berlin's New Train Station Faces €40 Mln Revamp

Berlin's brand new train station may have to be partly rebuilt just six months after it was opened. The architect who designed it has won a court case against the railway which departed from his design by building a flat ceiling on the lower level to save costs. The railway has appealed in the hope of averting a €40 million, three-year revamp.

The German railway has lost a court case against the architect of Berlin's new main train station and may have to rebuild part of it as a result, at a cost of €40 million.

Judge Peter Scholz ruled that the station, a futuristic glass, steel and concrete design by architect Meinhard von Gerkan, was a work of art that had been "considerably defaced" by the railway's decision to build a flat ceiling on a lower floor, contrary to the architect's design and despite his objections.

Von Gerkan had filed a lawsuit in autumn 2005 on the grounds that the railway had breached his intellectual property rights. His design envisaged a vaulted ceiling over the lower level of the station, but the railway decided to for a run-of-the-mill ceiling to save costs.

"You don't just tear a chapter out of a novel," said Gerkan, according to the DPA news agency.

Deutsche Bahn has said it will appeal against the ruling and that reconstruction work would take three years. The station, a prestige project for the railway, cost €700 million to build.

The five-story station near Berlin's government district is regarded as a masterpiece of modern construction.

cro/dpa

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