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From: "Architexturez." <interface.services@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:27:11 +0530
Makover to turn Hitler's airport into palace for beauty jetset
From Roger Boyes in Berlin
BERLIN-TEMPELHOF, Hitler’s favourite airport, may be rescued from
closure by Ronald Lauder, one of the world’s most influential
philanthropists for Jewish causes.
The extraordinary design of the Tempelhof complex — the terminal has
huge cathedral-like ceilings — prompted Norman Foster, the British
architect, to call it the “mother of all airports”.
Its future is in doubt because the cash-strapped Berlin city government
wants to close it next year and move all flights to an airport east of
the city. Now the Estée Lauder perfume empire has, according to Finance
Ministry sources, submitted a proposal to convert the terminal into a
luxury clinic. One landing strip would be retained so that wealthy
patients could land and take off within reach of the city hospital. The
Estée Lauder group has been investing in health spas and aesthetic surgery.
cont'd....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2457047,00.html