The 150-metre tower block has been designed by Californian-based architect Frank Gehry and was chosen by a jury due to its “expressiveness”, Regula Lüscher building director at Berlin’s Senate said on Monday.
Gehry‘s 39-storey skyscraper will be built in three separate parts and will contain 300 flats and a hotel.
US property investor Hines launched a competition last year to find a design for a skyscraper on Alexanderplatz. It will cost between €200 million and €250 million with work due to start in 2015.
Hines said they hoped to have the project complete two and a half years later.
But the competition has provoked criticism from some Berlin architects who argue the revamp of Alexanderplatz should not be led by investors.
As reported by The Local in November, two city-based architects designed their own skyscraper for the area – a vertical “garden city”.
Gehry also designed the DZ Bank on Berlin’s Pariser Platz.
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