James Simon Gallery

The James Simon Gallery serves as the central entrance building for the Museumsinsel, Berlin's celebrated island of museums on the River Spree. Designed by the British architect David Chipperfield and opened in 2019 after more than a decade of planning and construction, the building takes its name from James Simon, the Berlin philanthropist and art patron who donated much of the Egyptian collection now held in the Neues Museum nearby. Chipperfield's design features a colonnaded promenade that references the classical architecture of the surrounding institutions while remaining unmistakably contemporary in its clean lines and pale stone.

The gallery functions as a shared foyer for the entire Museumsinsel complex, housing temporary exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a bookshop, and a cafe. It also provides the main access point to the Archaeological Promenade, an underground passage connecting several of the island's museums. Visitors arriving at the James Simon Gallery step into a building that is both a practical hub and a considered piece of architecture in one of Europe's most significant museum ensembles.