Nationale-Nederlanden Building

The Nationale-Nederlanden Building, popularly known as the Dancing House, stands on the Vltava riverbank in Prague, completed in 1996 to a design by the Czech-Croatian architect Vlado Milunic working with the American architect Frank Gehry, built on a lot left vacant since Allied bombing destroyed the previous building there in 1945. Its two main volumes give the building its popular nickname, sometimes called Fred and Ginger after the dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: a conventional glass tower rises alongside a narrower, curved and visibly leaning glass form that appears to twist against it, the pairing read by many observers as a dancing couple. The building's deconstructivist design proved controversial when it was completed, standing in deliberate contrast to the Baroque, Gothic and Art Nouveau architecture that dominates the surrounding riverside streetscape in central Prague. It was originally developed for the Dutch insurance company Nationale-Nederlanden, whose name the building retains, and today houses offices along with a rooftop restaurant.