DZ Bank

The Brandenburger Tor stands sentinel over the elegant Pariser Platz, which was completely flattened in WWII, then spent the Cold War trapped just east of the Berlin Wall. Look around now: embassies, banks and a luxury hotel have snapped up the city’s priciest real estate and hired top architects to rebuild in style and from the ground up. California-based deconstructivist Frank Gehry, for instance, masterminded the DZ Bank at No 3, which packs a visual punch past those heavy doors. You’ll only get as far as the foyer but that’s enough for a glimpse at the vast atrium with its bizarre free-form sculpture vaguely reminiscent of a fish but actually a conference room! Next door, the latest – and final – addition to Pariser Platz is the new US Embassy by Gehry’s LA colleagues at Moore Ruble Yudell; it opened in July 2008.