Park at Gleisdreieck | Inner City Oasis

Since it opened in September, the park at Gleisdreieck has been subjected to quite a number of critical attacks. It's been deemed “too clean” or “too technocratic” by many. Shortly after the opening, the Tagesspiegel was printing a story about the new park's rapid decay, listing “piles of broken bottles” and “heaps of party-trash” as the reasons for the demise. But that's an impression we couldn't confirm when strolling around the park these last couple of weeks. Quite the contrary: During the daytime at least, there wasn't a pile of trash in sight, with the park seeming anything but close to decay.

The fact that the park has been embraced by the neighborhood community becomes especially visible on weekends, with families, love birds, groups of friends, skaters, tango and even old school roller skating dancers populating the patch of green, which is very clean compared to other city parks - the playground area is a big hit with kids and parents alike.

The central meeting area behind Technisches Museum is a hustle and bustle of lazy sun-lovers and tango dancers with highly impressive skills. You can tell by their gladiola bunches that these dancers are serious about their hobby.

Near the ICE train railroad line, rollerbladers breeze through cement parks next to soccer and basketball courts. Trash and vandalism? Not a trace. And even if some of the park's harshest critics argue that it was designed like a computer model, its implementation seems to have worked out splendidly.

(azi, emh) 

© Annika Zieske