Berlin's Bermuda Triangle.

Some have called the triangular 4200sqm site to the north of Friedrichstrasse railway station the Bermuda Triangle of architecture. For around a century, architects and investors have put forward successive notions of how to build on this highly prominent inner-city site, which is now a major traffic hub.

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The story began during the '20s when architect Bruno Mohring, an acknowledged enthusiast for high-rise, was commissioned to develop a study for a tall building. In 1921 his findings were then taken up by the newly founded Turmhaus-Aktien-Gesellschaft (TAG) that had identified the Spreedreieck as the prime site for a tall building in Berlin. However, the Berlin authorities were not in favour of any of these soaring towers and the TAG sold the site to Berlin Transport in 1929. They immediately invited six prominent German architects to put forward designs for an office building. Mies van der Rohe and Mendelsohn were the two proposals with the greatest acclaim, and Mies' iconic glass tower became one of the most visionary unbuilt projects of Modernism. To this day its shimmering glass torso shrouding a structural skeleton has provided the Spreedreieck with an idealised identity.

In the end none of the designs was implemented, the site was wrecked by war damage and it was not until after the fall of the Wall that any serious plans re-emerged. Driven by the euphoria of German unification, some property developers dreamed of reviving Mies' breathtaking scheme by appointing one of his descendants. This intention crashed just as decidedly as Donald Trump's much hyped but ultimately failed proposal to build the 'European-Trump-Tower' on the Spreedreieck.

In 2000 the site changed hands as part of a restitution claim and was finally purchased by the Hamburg investor Harm Muller-Spreer. He commissioned his own architectural competition among six international firms: David Chipperfield, Diener & Diener, Bothe Richter Teherani, Christoph Langhof, Gruntuch/Ernst and Mark Braun Architekten. However, in the meantime, conditions on the ground had changed enormously since the days of Mies' glass tower. Only 2000sqm of the former site were still available due to a preservation order on a former border check-point, and restrictions regarding crossing Underground lines limited ambitions even further.

Mark Braun Architekten from Berlin are the recently chosen winners of this two-stage competition. Braun succeeded in both phases, probably due to a radical redesign of his initial concept to accommodate the specific requirements of the main tenant, international accountants Ernst & Young. This new design is a remarkable departure from previous schemes, though it still bears homage to Mies' seminal tower. Due to height restrictions, Braun had to forsake his original intentions for a 40-storey tower. Instead he conceived two slender, slightly curved volumes connected by a narrow central core. The predominantly glass facade reflects Mies' vertical aspirations, though it only goes up 12 floors. In total 22 000sqm will be up for rent in this architectural ensemble that still bears echoes of its visionary predecessors. The merit of Braun's design is that while a clear whiff of Modernist idealism can still be detected, it redefines Berlin's urban aspirations on one of its most famous sites.