The American private investor had expected something more modest when he commissioned Hans Scharoun (1893–1972) to design a tower of homes and offices on Berlin’s boulevard Kurfürstendamm. Working with Sergius Ruegenberg (1903 – 1996), Scharoun designed an unusual, playful building. The two wings were to have six storeys. In the plans, levels 3 to 5 jut forward over the two office levels below. The façade was to be in eggshell white and olive green, a reference to the proposed name “Olivia”, which also explains the larger-than-life head of a woman that was to crown the outer corner of the building.
Scharoun does not follow the clear, strictly geometric patterns of Bauhaus modernism here but adopts an original, lightweight architectural idiom. The architect failed to convince his client, so the “Olivia” project was never implemented.
Residential and office building „Olivia“
1951/52
Kurfürstendamm 182, Berlin-Charlottenburg
Drawing: Sergius Ruegenberg
Handcoloured reprography on photo paper
84,5 x 109,5 cm
Acquired from funds of the Senate Department for Culture Berlin, 1994
