In the center of Berlin, the Barenboim-Said Academy building is near the end of a radical three-year, $35-million makeover. During ENR's recent visit, the site itself offered a lesson in counterpoint: On one side of the 75-ft-tall atrium, a violin-piano-oboe trio played; on the other, a worker painted the walls to the accompaniment of metal being grinded and cut.
“There are about a thousand things left here to do,” says Michael Naumann, founding director of the academy and former German culture minister. “That’s not too bad.”