One of the most significant pieces to the architectural history of Hitler’s reign is now set to be converted into a concert venue in a controversial decision currently making waves in the second-largest city in Bavaria.

DW is reporting that the infamous Nuremberg Congress Hall building, which is part of Hitler’s planned Nazi party rally grounds complex, will serve as the new temporary home of the Nuremberg State Theater following a city council decision Wednesday.

The cultural venture would join another recent adaptive reuse plan from MVRDV that will transform a portion of Berlin’s erstwhile Tempelhof Airport into a local film academy campus. 

The Ludwig and Franz Ruff-designed building’s construction was never completed as Nazi officials struggled to finance it and other ambitious construction projects in the build up of armaments for World War II. The building is currently administered by the Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände) museum but is still mostly unused and underestored, leading to some confusion amongst the city’s residents. 

“To this day, we still don't really know: Is this now a memorial site or should we develop the building? Is it a ruin, a memorial, a museum, or a venue that I go to?" Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra director Lucius A. Hemmer told DW, adding that he found the idea of reusing the structure as an arts center “charming.” 

The plan has nonetheless drawn its fair share of criticism from both preservationists and historians, who feel the site should be left as a public memorial testament to the fascist politics and failed idealogy of the bygone Nazi era.

"That would simply distract from the main focus, which is this monstrosity," historian Hans-Christian Täubrich is reported to have told a local broadcast network. "This monstrosity is also a synonym for all the monstrous things that happened in the name of Germany during that time.”