What Have They Done to My Platz, Ma?

A bit late, this one - but go read the fine Architecture in Berlin on the filling-in of my favourite bleak windswept East Berlin plaza with all manner of expensive tat. Depressing. Where do those of us who like the Siberian air to run at us unencumbered in a massive parade ground go, nowadays? Why must all the wide open spaces be either a) outside of the city or b) green...?