American Library in Berlin

This free public library was a gift of the American people to the people of Berlin after World War II. The library expansion was an invited competition of fourteen American architects.

The major restraint was that the original tower could not be touched. The solution could have easily fractured into parts as a result of these demands. Instead, to integrate the tower into the composition completely, we treated it as if it were one of Rauschenberg's found objects, discovered, and then collaged between the program's new components.