By John Harrison, AIA

Mithun Architects+Designers+Planners is a 150-person architecture, interior design, planning and landscape architecture firm in Seattle. With over 50 years of history, the firm has developed many long-standing traditions including a bi-annual study trip. Mithun pays the cost of travel and expenses for each of its associates, principals and support staff with 7 or more years of service to visit a place where architecture, planning and design are to be experienced. Spouses, and at times even children, have participated in the event.

The trip is a time for architectural discovery, cultural enlightenment and the fostering of friendships among colleagues. Past trips include England, Japan, France, Spain and other destinations over the years. The participants travel in one of three separate groups with developed agendas for study. As a part of the employee’s obligation for the trip, slides, sketches and a journal are required to be delivered to the firm. The firm assembles this information and publishes a book, which becomes a collection of the memories and reflections of the places traveled.

On a tour of Berlin in the fall of 1999, our group made a day trip to Potsdam. Little did I know that the trip would culminate in an unforgettable encounter with a modern architectural masterpiece. Potsdam is an eclectic escape approximately 20 miles from Berlin on the Havel River; its landscape is marked by affairs with France, Italy, Holland and England, as well as the influence of the Russian military occupation. Although a sense of Eastern isolation still lingers, the city’s diverse past has left it with grand parks, places and neighborhoods.

The main focus of our tour was Frederick the Great’s summer place, Sans Souci. Perched atop and elegantly terraced hill, it is famous for housing artists and scholars, among them the philosopher Voltaire, in the mid 1700’s. The fountains, gardens and grounds are quite beautiful but the palace itself was less than awe-inspiring. The day trip had been pleasant but not in any way remarkable, and I planned to make my way back to Berlin to join the rest of the group for the evening. Only the prodding of a colleague convinced me to take the time to visit the Einstein Observatory. I was glad I did.

Armed only with cameras, sketchpads and a rough map, we set off to find the observatory. The tower, completed in 1924 as a facility for Albert Einstein to conduct astrophysical research, had been restored just months before our visit after over fifty years of neglect. The trek turned into an adventure of its own when we found ourselves somewhat lost. We made a shortcut through a cemetery to find a 10-foot-tall fence separating us from the gates to the grounds were the tower was located. We fashioned a crude ladder out of debris and scaled the barrier. Once through the gates, we followed a winding road through the grounds. The setting was a mixture of academic buildings and scientific structures set amongst trees and seemed meant for the endeavor of learning. Around a final corner, framed perfectly through the trees, we had our first look at the tower.

Our timing could not have been better. The late afternoon sun, on an almost clear day colored a long, quiet afternoon with Mendelsohn’s masterpiece. It was a joy to draw. Although the tower is completely symmetrical, it is not at all static. Its forms are soft, curved and folded planes that intersect with supreme grace. In the sunlight, the creamy color of the stucco-like skin accentuates the tower’s dramatic form and creates and ideal photographic opportunity. With each sketch, we made a more intimate connection with Mendelsohn’s design; several small drawings evolved into larger-scale form gestures that we drew with Japanese brush pens. The more gesture-like the drawings became, the more accurately they expressed the spirit of the building-with a sense of motion as the theme. I surmised that the tower represented the action in modern man’s progress.

Placed into the context of the time it was constructed, I wonder about the vision and courage it took to make this building. I am thankful that the effort to restore it gave us a chance to see it in its original glory. We may never have left the grounds if we hadn’t realized that we were in danger of the missing the last "zuk nach Berlin." We ran back to the station catching the S-Bahn to Friedrichstrasse where we ate and drank late into the evening still aglow from the day’s experience.

John Harrison, AIA is and Associate with Mithun Architects+Designers+Planners in Seattle, WA, and a past chairperson of the AIA's Young Architects Forum.

This article was originally published in a different form in ARCADE: A journal for Architecture and Design in the Northwest.