Grown Up
The Park Inn Hotel on Alexanderplatz sprouted red and white striped antenna this October, marking its entry into skyscraper adulthood. The 35 meter high needles are a little bit skinny maybe, but nonetheless lend the building a new sense of self esteem since it lost its original glass cladding in November 2005.
The great thing about the old cladding was that it included a subtle blue colour gradient which gradually got lighter towards the top. This amplified the reflected natural daylight making the building seem higher than it really was. But there’s no need for crafty optical tricks when you’ve got a big set of manly antenna on your roof.
The hotel building was designed in 1964 by the collective of Roland Korn, Heinz Scharlipp and Hans-Erich Bogatzky, and was opened in 1970. It’s 128 meters high, has 1006 rooms, has a casino on the 37th floor, a Burger King on the ground floor and pay-TV in every room.