Due to its highly central strategic location and the symbolic significance of its history, the area around Friedrichstrasse station, one of Berlin's most important public transport hubs, has been the object of speculative appetite of developers since the fall of the Wall. The Friedrichstrase Banhof operation, promoted by the municipal office of urban development and initiated through a restricted competition in September 1993, was intended to channel these desires through a development plan that would be the northern terminus of the Friedrichstrasse and the link between the large urban development operation of the Spreebogen, to the west, and the rehabilitation plan of the Museuminsel, to the east.

The Friedrichstrasse Banhof area is divided into three clearly differentiated zones, separated by the Spree and the railway tracks. The first is located on the north bank of the river, and comprises the block between Reinhardtstrasse, Albrechtstrasse, Schiffbauerdamm and Friedrichstrasse. The central area forms a sort of almond shape between the bend of the river and the railroad tracks and is connected to it by the Weidendammerbrucke, linking the two sections of the Friedrichstrasse; the so-called 'palace of tears', the former control point for the subway to East Berlin, is located in this area. South of the tracks and up to Unter den Linden extends the third zone, the central element of which is the tall, flat Central...[+]