James-Simon-Galerie - Sonderausstellungen

On Berlin's Museum Island the James-Simon-Galerie serves as the central visitor center. The building stands on the Spreekanal between the Kupfergraben and the Neues Museum on the site of the Neuen Packhof, which was demolished in 1938. Under the name James Simon, the gallery, together with the Archäologische Promenade, functions as the core of the Masterplans Museumsinsel.

As part of the master plan adopted in 1999, the James-Simon-Galerie was conceived as the central entrance building; it currently provides the only access to the Pergamonmuseum and offers an underground entrance to the Neues Museum. On completion the gallery is intended to be connected via the Archäologische Promenade to four of the five museums to manage visitor flows. Over an area of 10,900 square metres, of which 4,600 square metres are usable floor space, there is an auditorium seating 300, space for temporary exhibitions, a museum shop and catering facilities; these functions are intended to relieve the historic museums.

Planning began with an award-winning 1999 design by a British architect that proposed a restrained cubic solution in steel and satin-finished glass. After a temporary suspension of the work, in 2006 the German Bundestag committed funding of €73 million; subsequent revisions of the design and public debates followed, including a short-lived attempt at a citizens' initiative. Extensive foundation work involving 1,200 piles delayed construction; the foundation stone was laid on 18 October 2013. Construction costs amounted to €134 million, and the building period stretched over almost ten years. The official opening took place on 12 July 2019; the subsequent special exhibition "Nah am Leben. 200 Jahre Gipsformerei" displayed 200 objects (30 August 2019–1 March 2020). In 2019 approximately 338,000 visitors used the gallery.

Architecturally, the narrow, elongated gallery runs alongside the Spreekanal and is organised into five levels: a non-public basement for technical installations and storage, a level serving as a transition to the Archäologische Promenade with areas for temporary exhibitions and workshop spaces, a floor with a foyer and an auditorium suitable for events, a mezzanine with shop- and service-related areas, and the main floor with a terrace in the colonnaded walkway, catering facilities and the access to the Pergamonmuseum. Visitors can reach the complex step-free by elevator or via the stepped external staircase; at the foot of the stairs a covered colonnade visually links the gallery with the Neues Museum. An architecture critic compared the composition of the building elements to the arrangement of the temples on the staircase of the Athenian Acropolis and called the complex "Berlin's Nike temple."