NEWS

Peter from our office was able to visit The Highline in its opening week on a recent visit to New York.

The Highline is a raised railway line constructed in the 1930s and decommissioned in the 1980s. The line extends from the Meatpackers District through Chelsea on the West Side of Manhattan.

A one and a half mile (approx 2.4km) section of The Highline has been set aside as a linear park, with the first stage of the project, comprising approximately half of the project’s length, opening this year on the 8th of  June.

The conservation of The Highline and its transformation into an urban park was initiated and executed by the Friends of the Highline (www.thehighline.org). The city and Federal Governments, in particular, substantially funded the project (total cost to over US$150 million), with significant support garnered from wealthy foundations and patrons of the project, as well as public donations.

“The Highline, designed by James Corner Field Operations is understated and simple, threaded through an eclectic New York built environment that includes a mix of old and new, back-of-house abandon and blemish, close views of the Gehry-designed IAC building, openings to vistas of the Hudson River and undercrofts, including the almost brutalist mouth formed by the base of the Standard Hotel.

Narrow sections of exposed concrete direct the pedestrian, lifting up to form ‘peel-up benches’ or dissipating into fingers that interdigitate into planting areas that retain railway line artefacts and planting design (by Piet Oudolf) inspired by the wild, self-seeded landscape that preceded the park during its years of dormancy.

There are numerous elements to be enthusiastic about, but pictures speak louder than words. If there is one thing to take away, it’s the invitation to just wander and take it slowly and quietly that this place invokes - pretty much the antithesis of the street life below and throughout this city.”