54. Design Inspiration - the High Line Park

I recently had the chance to visit the High Line, a beautiful linear park in the air that weaves its way between the buildings of Manhattan.  It is built on an abandoned railway structure elevated about 30 feet above the ground and stretches for about 1.5 miles through the west side of the city.  The experience of a long green space several stories in the air is pretty amazing, you feel detached from the busy streets and aren’t required to cross traffic at every corner.  The park cuts through the middle of city blocks, giving you unique views behind the buildings and longer vistas down the streets that it passes over.  It is definitely an impressive work of landscape architecture in many ways and I found it a very inspiring example of what good design can do to add life to a city, create a green refuge and give a new perspective on urban life.

Hats off to the design team that won the competition and designed the project:  James Corner Field Operations (landscape architects), Diller Scofidio + Renfro (architects) and Piet Oudolf (planting expertise) [see links to their web sites at the bottom for more great pictures of the park].  Their design makes the most of the raised platform by including a large variety of spaces and experiences.  The walking path varies greatly in width, sometimes branches into separate paths, is elevated above the plantings in one section, and even goes through a building at one point!  There are places where the trees have grown enough now to feel like a forest; there are also open areas with low plantings, as well as a lawn, and even a bubbling water feature you can cool your feet in.  Knowing that this took place on a raised platform with limited soil depth made it all that more impressive.

Visible History

The idea to save the elevated railway was originated by Joshua David and Robert Hammond, local residents who founded the Friends of the High Line in 1999.  The locals loved the existing character of the abandoned structure which was overgrown with a variety of plants but still had the original cast ironwork from the 1930’s.  The design team made a great effort to preserve some of the original feel of the place: much of the old rail tracks remain, an innovative paving design fades in and out of the rails and plantings, and the planting design itself recalls the wild weeds that were there before.  In the most recently completed section they went even further and left parts of it virtually untouched, only stabilizing the structure and removing toxic materials.

Design Details

An impressive variety of creative design details keep things interesting and even offers a few surprises.  In the newest section of the park I was at first mystified by an area going below the walkway level with steel beams and odd cut-outs.  When I walked down there I realized that all the beams and the ground were rubber coated (but still showed the bolt patterns) and the cut outs were for kids to crawl through – a playground.   The various types of bench designs are also impressive, ranging from ones that look like they were peeled up from the ground to others that actually sit on wheels on the old rail tracks.

The Future

This project has been widely published and emulated, and it has remarkably become a major tourist attraction in a city already full of world-class destinations.  However, in some ways I worry that the park may become too much of a success.  There is a lot of new construction going on in the area and several slick new buildings have been built facing the park.  The charm of going behind old and unpretentious buildings and being isolated from them may be lost.  The higher property values it has contributed to may end up running off the original inhabitants.  Alas, gentrification always has a good and bad side, but that is a topic for another time.   Overall the High Line is a huge success, a great asset for the neighborhood and inspiring for all us landscape designers!

References

Friends of the High Line (the non-profit organization that maintains the park & much more) http://www.thehighline.org/

“Above Grade: On the High Line”, Phillip Lopate, Places Journal, November 2011 https://placesjournal.org/article/above-grade-on-the-high-line/

James Corner Field Operations project page:  http://www.fieldoperations.net/project-details/project/highline.html

Diller Scofidio + Renfro project page:  https://dsrny.com/project/the-high-line?index=false&search=built§ion=projects&tags=Piet

Oudolf project page:  https://oudolf.com/garden/highline