I was walking from the Gemaldegalerie to the train on my recent “flaneur” trip to Berlin, and although the park at Gleisdreieck is relatively new and popular, at dusk on this lonely day it was a bit destitute, save for friends enjoying the last light skateboarding and fraternizing, warmth in the cool night of day. With the cranes in the background, it reminded me of when I first came to Berlin, on a trip after college, just before the wall came down, a dystopic hodgepodge of new and old buildings rising from the rubble of history into a new tomorrow.