The high line in NYC is a new open space development built on abandoned elevated railroad. It stretches from the meatpacking District to the Hudson Rail Yards in Manhattan, approximately 1.5-miles long. The project was a collaboration between landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, architects Diller Scofidio+ Renfro and planting designer Piet Oudolf.
Thorugh a strategy aptly called “Agri-tecture”(a merger of agriculture and architecture), the high line surface is digitized into discrete units of paving and planting which are assembled along the 1.5 miles into a variety of gradients from 100% paving to 100% soft, richly vegetated biotopes. Inspired by the melancholic, unruly beauty of this postindustrial ruin, where nature has reclaimed a once vital piece of urban infrastructure, the new park interprets its inheritance.The long paving units allow for the public to meander in an organic way, exploring different parts of the park. The highline itself creates a place for refuge in the heart of the city, seamlessly transitioning from the frantic pace of the city to the otherworldly landscape above.
This project shows just how the surreal can be turned into the real. It used the existing urban blight and turned it into a place for people. A project like this shows us how cities (even heavily cosmopolitan ones) can be taken back to its organic roots through the use of plantations which not only improve the city aesthetically but also create an element of environmental sustainability.
Photos courtesy of Dezeen
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