Wasserturm Westend

The Wassertürme Charlottenburg stand along Akazienallee and Spandauer Damm in Berlin’s Westend. Two brick towers rise above a Dutch-style house that links them, forming a protected ensemble. Charlottenburg I, the older and smaller tower, was built in 1881 to designs by Bernhard August Salbach. Charlottenburg II, sixty metres high, was completed in 1909–1910 by Heinrich Seeling. Pump stations supplied water to the tanks inside until the towers were shut down in the 1970s. The towers were sold in 2008 and converted to homes and offices by 2012. Kahlfeldt Architekten added lifts and staircases to join the buildings, creating twelve apartments in the taller tower and seven lofts in the smaller one. Each flat has a balcony, and some spaces can be used commercially. The penthouse, at two hundred square metres, contains a recording studio praised for its acoustics. Visitors walk beneath the brick arches and along the wide balconies that circle each storey. The Dutch house between the towers now serves as entrance and communal area. From the top floors the view stretches across the rooftops of Westend toward the city centre.