A year ago, the back lot of Normont Early Education Center was little more than a bare, heat-radiating expanse of asphalt. Outside, the Harbor City preschool reflected its industrial neighborhood: scant grass, little shade, amid a block of warehouses full of grinding machinery. To get to campus, parents must shepherd their children through a concrete labyrinth, past auto body shops and steel manufacturers. At times, the noise of grinding gears can obscure the soprano whoops and wails of the preschoolers.
Each day is different at Berlin's Tempelhofer Feld - the largest inner-city open space in the world, which has become a treasured symbol of community and environmental connection in the heart of the German capital. The seemingly endless expanse was an airport until 2008, but today, it is rollerbladers, skaters and cyclists who take advantage of the fine asphalt runways within hundreds of acres of public green space.