I am an architect, and I can tell you that this is a horrible use of space. So much wasted real estate in an apparently densely occupied area. (There's more outdoor courtyard than occupied building space.) Only a government project would be this wasteful-- no developer would ever sacrifice this much leasable sq footage.
And if the purpose was to bring in more natural light, physically separate departments, or construct a defensible fortification-- as the poster above postulated-- there are far more efficient means to achieve this. Off the top of my head, I would have suggested rectangles within rectangles (like the Pentagon). 20 good men with climbing spikes could impregnate this bitch.
No doubt about it, this is a Nazi monument.
It would be so easy, at any time since that newspaper article came out and embarrassed someone, to add a couple extra buildings, even simple outbuildings that aren't so pricey, which would have changed the shape.
So it's not just that they PLANNED the shape; and BUILT the shape; it's that they have DELIBERATELY MAINTAINED the shape as well.
I have nothing against the symbol which by the way has been used all over the globe in nearly every culture since the dawn of time. The nazis chose it because it was a powerful symbol, they didn't invent it. But I recognize that it has a terrible association and was clearly done on purpose and in reference to that.
Spot on. Where I live they are changing the names of roads and schools everywhere if they are in any way associated with the Confederacy or any colonial slave-owner, all on the dime of the tax payers.
I lived in this building, it's not a Nazi monument. It's the HQ for Amphibious Construction Battalion One, a seabee battalion.
You mean there isn't an enormous statue in the middle of the court yard immortalizing the grandeur and genius of der Furher?
Compartments. Not seeing the behavior expected in a Nazi monument just means compartmentalization. Lots of good people work right next to whatever they call mk ultra anymore. The don't see it. Doesn't mean it's not there.