A walk through Potsdamer Platz: Europe’s biggest construction site 30 years on
In 2024, Potsdamer Platz celebrates its 30th anniversary and Jonathan Glancey reflects upon the famous postmodernist development in Berlin, seen here through the lens of photographer Rory Gardiner.
The first buildings of Berlin’s born-again Potsdamer Platz opened 30 years ago. Largely complete by 2000, this ambitious urban development, a kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate, had been Europe’s biggest construction site. How big? One hundred and fifty acres. Think of Potsdamer Platz as more or less the size of 50 Trafalgar Squares or 30 Midtown Manhattan blocks. Half as big again as London’s towering Canary Wharf and almost as big as Beijing’s Forbidden City.