Quality of life in an urban environment

Berlin’s historic city center is located east of Pariser Platz and Brandenburg Gate around the avenue Unter den Linden, and extends across Gendarmenmarkt to the waterfront areas of the Nicolaiviertel and the Fischerinsel. The western city center is concentrated around the boulevard Kurfürstendamm, the Gedächtniskirche (Memorial Church), and Tauentzienstrasse. There are also a number of borough “centers”; these all have a character of their own and play a major role in the way Berliners identify with their neighborhoods. An entirely new shopping, cultural, and residential quarter has emerged at Potsdamer Platz. This is an excellent place to begin a stroll through the government, parliament, and embassy district, past the Reichstag building, and up to elegant Friedrichstrasse. Renowned architects like Josef Paul Kleihues, Hans Kollhoff, Renzo Piano, Aldo Rossi, Helmut Jahn, and Norman Foster have all left their mark on the new buildings throughout this area.