I spent last week in Berlin, Germany. Back in 1992, my wife and I moved there while I was working at SOM (Chicago), and we decided to open an office in the new unified Germany. We ended up staying for 18 months during what amounted to an incredibly exciting and frustrating time. The city I returned to last week is a testament to the power of Architecture and Urban Planning.

This has to be one of the great, liveable cities of the 21st century. Not only does it have a vast public transportation system, but it’s the easiest system I’ve ever encountered. It assumes that the public is honest and isn’t clogged with turnstiles and checkpoints that we see in every other transportation system. The streets, subways and parks are immaculate.

One of my first stops was Potsdamer Platz. Back in 1993, this was a barren wasteland. Today it is unrecognizable with all the new buildings: Hans Kollhoff”s Potsamder Platz #1 and Helmut Jahn’s Sony Center, Renzo Piano’s Daimler Benz building and Debis Tower are the star attractions.

Peter Eisenman’s Holocaust Memorial is another important site. At first glance,  is a one-liner. But one has to walk in and amongst the slabs to really get the feeling of it’s power. There was a certain similarity between the memorial and The Garden of Exile at Daniel Liebeskind’s Jewish Museum. I can’t say I really enjoyed the Jewish Museum. The permanent exhibition was fairly extensive but the museum is a labyrinth and there is no-way out (until you get to the end). Perhaps this was the point. Anyway, the best part of the architecture was the void spaces which were marked as black walls within the building. If you looked into the small windows in these spaces - you finally got to appreciate the design. But the exhibitions don’t do anything to promote the experience that I suspect Liebeskind had in mind.

The last time we visited Berlin was in 1995 to see Christo’s wrapping of the Reichstang. While that was an amazing project, Norman Foster really put the “wow” factor into this otherwise, dreary and clumsy building. Alongside the Reichstag are all the new government buildings and parks. A boat trip along the Spree river was a great way to see them and we were fortunate enough to have a perfect day for photography. The Federal Chancellery by Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank was the most disappointing. A bad dream where Lou Kahn flirts with Post Modernism. You heard it hear first.

So much more to say, but hey - this is a blog - not a book. 

 
It’s one of those events in life that we know approaches, but never quite hits us until “‘the big day.” At least, that’s what I thought until (to my surprise), one month before I was scheduled to pass over the cusp and enter that graceful decline, our obnoxiously youthful postman delivered my membership card and application to join AARP!

It’s now official. I’m all grown up! And not just another “adult,” but a part of that dubiously distinguished organization known as the American Association of Retired Persons.

What I’m mostly struggling with is the word “retired.” It’s something I could never imagine being - so how could I possibly join a group about which retirement is a de facto component? Sure, my (much), older cousin tells me that the magazine is wonderful. Great, just what I need, yet another glossy magazine to not get around to reading every month. And sure, they claim to have wonderful savings on travel services - and that’s one thing I spend a lot of time doing - traveling. But could they really be much better than the deals I get on-line with Expedia and Priceline? They also claim to provide health-related benefits. It should be interesting to see if these compare to the magnificent savings I receive through our PEO organization!

After I received the traumatic mailing, I called my sister who’s been a proud member for 3 years and asked her what she thought? She told me that I should “celebrate,” being a member of AARP and share this with everyone. So, thanks to Bonnie, I’m going to take her suggestion and say here that anyone who is a member of AARP and would like a 10% discount (in addition to any other discount we offer), on purchases of ArchiOffice software - please call our sales department and tell them you read my blog and would like the special AARP discount. Since my 50th birthday is actually March 3rd (no condolences please), this offer will expire on March 31st, 2008.

My apologies for having any sort of commercial flavor on the blog site - but any complaints should be directed to my sister Bonnie who suggested this celebration. And while I’m now a proud member of AARP, I have no intentions of retiring. Instead, I’ll just pretend the “R” stands for Responsible.