The historic Berlin Tempelhof Airport was the site of early flying demonstrations by Orville Wright in 1909 and the 1948 Berlin Airlift. Today it is now seeing new life as a beloved new park known as Tempelhofer Feld. This transformation was the result of a May 2014 referendum vote by residents of Berlin to restrict development and turn all of the land into a park. Tempelhofer Feld now draws residents from all over Berlin and visitors from around the world, who wish to experience a successful example of historical ‘adaptive reuse’ and to enjoy a wonderful day in a grand park.
Here’s a report from Airport2Park supporter Andrew Gledhill:
I had the good fortune to visit Berlin last weekend and the greater good fortune that
it wasn’t snowing for my visit to the former Tempelhof Airport.
Here’s the view of the other side of the same building showing where the planes came in.
You can see a lovely old silver plane just below the word ‘Tempelhof’.
It reminded me of the DC3 at our Museum of Flying
- changing the use of a space doesn’t mean forgetting its history.
They have the apron area fenced off, but if you turn round your view is very different.
It’s open space almost to the horizon. The Tempelhof site is over twice the size of what’s
currently the Santa Monica Airport, but the way they use it gives wonderful examples of
adaptive and creative re-use. There’s plenty of cycling and skating, of course.
Here’s the layout of the Tempelhof park. You’ll see most of it was always grass.
In fact it turns out the site was a picnic destination, and parade ground for the Prussians,
long before it was an airport. Just like our airport/park, without the Prussians.
Now dogs are free to wander, however unsteadily.
There are vast areas for them…
And rumor has it there’s a sly fox in residence.
Perhaps he’s lurking near the barbecue area, which covers whole acres of ground.
Let’s hope he leaves the Skylarks alone when they come to breed.
Here’s an example of the respect for history at the site - the former parachute training
facility, which still looks to be in working order.
There’s room for people to play rugby, without having to compete with others for space,
and there are woods to walk through
or you can take Segway or bike tours,
and meander down the main runway
or just to take in the view
and the space is so huge that at first I thought I was looking at kites…
but instead I found man-sized aviation – skateboarding with help from the wind.
And you ask yourself ‘why can’t we have that?’, and then you realize we can.
In 1926, Santa Monica residents actually passed a Parks Bond to purchase the land where the present airport resides today.
We still own that land. It is just a matter of time until it is transformed into a park as beloved as Templehof.
