Zlatý Anděl

Look up at this curved glass tower. See the red text flowing across the facade? Those are actual poems by Franz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Guillaume Apollinaire. The 18 meter angel staring down at you comes from a Wim Wenders film. This is Zlatý Anděl, Golden Angel. French architect Jean Nouvel finished it in November 2000. ING Real Estate hired him, the same company behind the Dancing House. They wanted someone bold enough to transform this neglected district into something modern. The name comes from an old pharmacy that stood here until 1980. The city demolished 8 buildings, including the pharmacy, to dig the metro station beneath your feet. Before they blew it up, someone saved a gilded angel fresco from the facade. Smart move. They restored it and placed it inside this building 20 years later. Nouvel designed the facade like a multilayered screen. Clouds drift across the glass during the day. The red poetry shifts with the light. He chose writers who lived and worked here: Orten, Kafka, Meyrink. Their words about this city, written decades ago, now float permanently above the intersection where they once walked. The building won Building of the Year in 2001. Not bad for a shopping and office complex that sits on top of a metro line.