A TOWERING VISION FOR NEW YORK

摘要

From a practical point of view, the Jewish Museum in Berlin has a few problems. For one thing, it doesn't have enough bathrooms, and its zigzag walls are a curator's nightmare. But the building, which suggests a distended Star of David, is aesthetically eloquent. Haunting and stark, it is at once an emotional work―a tribute to Jewish life in Germany and a Holocaust memorial―and a cutting-edge piece of architecture. And it resonates with the public: A million people have visited since the museum officially opened about a year and a half ago, making it the second most popular in the German capital after the Pergamon, which houses the Altar of Zeus from the Greek temple. "If it were an ordinary building, a box with square walls and good light, we wouldn't get that many visitors," says W. Michael Blu-menthal, director of the Jewish Museum. "A significant number come to see the building."