In its meeting on 29 March 2001, the Board of Trustees of the »Foundation for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe« decided to commission the Berlin exhibition designer Dagmar von Wilcken with the development of a design concept for the Memorial’s Information Centre. This will involve close collaboration between Dagmar von Wilcken and the Board’s Design Working Group and, in particular, the architect Peter Eisenman.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse, told the press on Friday that he saw the board’s decision as sending a positive signal with regard to the progress of the project as a whole. »This decision represents a significant step towards the artistic, structural and functional integration of the Information Centre into the Memorial,« he said.
The draft design presented by Dagmar von Wilcken convinced the Board of Trustees that the designer would be able to integrate the prescriptions regarding the content of the Information Centre into a sophisticated formal concept, while at the same time responding to the challenge of Eisenman’s architectural approach. In the Board’s opinion, her concept takes up the formal language of the Memorial and further develops it within the framework of the individual exhibition elements.
The architect Peter Eisenman also reacted positively to the draft design during the meeting of the Board of Trustees. His report to the Board on the current situation with regard to the planning and preparations for the construction of the Memorial and the Information Centre was received positively. According to the report, the legal aspects of planning should be clarified in the coming summer, and, as a result, the issuing of a building permit and the commencement of construction on the site can be expected at the end of 2001.
