Party Congress
Foundation and early years The complex was built from 1967 to 1970 in the course of the redevelopment of Alexanderplatz when it was located in
East Berlin. It was designed by the team of Roland Korn, Heinz Scharlipp and Hans Erich Bogatzky. However, the design as built differs in the shape and location of the tower on the lot from that envisaged in the 1964 plan for redevelopment of the square. The four-star hotel opened as the
Hotel Stadt Berlin, part of
East Germany's
Interhotel chain. There was a panorama restaurant on the 37th floor and unusually fast
elevators for the time and place.
Development after the GDR In 1993, after the
German reunification and until 2003, it had been extensively refurbished and renamed
Forum Hotel Berlin, then operated by
IHG Hotels & Resorts. In 2003,
Rezidor Hotel Group became the operator of the hotel, which was renamed to
Park Inn Berlin-Alexanderplatz and subsequently
Park Inn by Radisson Berlin Alexanderplatz. A casino, the highest in Europe, was located in the restaurant until November 2010. There is a public viewing platform on the roof. All the rooms were refurbished starting in 2001 at a cost of
€ 20 million. Between May and November 2005 the entire
façade was replaced; the 6,800 new mirror-glass panes cost €3 million. In October 2006, two antenna masts were erected on the roof, bringing the total height of the building to . In December 2006 the hotel and the attached real estate parcels were acquired by
Blackstone Group. ==Base building==