Otto Apel - Germany Skidmore, Owings and Merrill - USA America House Staufenstrasse 1, Frankfurt 1957	The former America House, since summer of 2007 headquarters of the Spanish cultural institute Instituto Cervantes, is a significant architectural and cultural monument and is an important part in the Frankfurt city history. As for the construction of the US Consulate General, the Chicago architectural office Skidmore, Owens and Merril collaborated also on this project with the Frankfurt architect Otto Apel. The yellow brick building was praised at its time for its modern architecture and interiro design. Initially the America House enjoyed great popularity with the Frankfurt population because of its extensive offer for cultural events. For its major public library the local press described it even as the "secret high school at Staufenstrasse". During the Cold War, USA hostilities came on also in Germany, and the building later became repeatedly victim of vandalism and arson attacks. In 2005 the America Institute pulled out and handed over the now heavily dilapidated building to the city of Frankfurt. As an indication of the new tenant, the architectural office Schneider & Schumacher placed a piece of art in the form of a "folding screen" (spanish wall) in front of the entrance and converted the previous crawl space to the library. For the careful handling of the monument and the extensive restoration to the original state, as well as the sophisticated lighting concept of the new Library, the reconstruction in 2011 was awarded the Architecture Prize for Exemplary Buildings in Hessen.