The English architect David Chipperfield has beaten out Frank Gehry for the contract to rebuild the New Museum in Berlin. The museum was destroyed by bombing in World War II. According to Wolfgang Kahlke, a spokesman for the museum, the $150 million project is to be completed in six to eight years after construction begins in 2000.
Chipperfield’s design was described as more traditional than Gehry’s. The museum will exhibit part of the Egyptian collection of Berlin’s museums. The New Museum, built between 1841 and 1855, is in the eastern part of the city on the island of museums on the Spree River. Earlier projects by Chipperfield include work at the Museum of Natural History in London as well as buildings in Tokyo and Kyoto in Japan and in Bristol, England.
