The High Line
What’s it all about, anyway? A few years ago I was working for a community planning agency and the planning world was losing it’s mind over the opening of The High Line Park in New York City. I went with my friend, let’s call her “Mir,” who has no connection with the design world to see what all the fuss was about. While walking around in it she was not afraid to tell me she “didn’t get it.” Fair enough. The weather is nice right now, if you’re in New York, maybe you should go — or not.
So, here we go. The High Line, in case you’ve never been, is a public park in New York City built on an abandoned elevated railroad track that runs along the west side of Manhattan from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District down to West 34 Street. You are not allowed to pick the flowers, walk your dog, skateboard or throw things off the High Line. Some of the benches are made of ipe’ which some consider to be an endangered tropical hardwood. New benches are made from reclaimed teak.
The rail line was used from 1934 to 1980 and the current rendition of the High Line is about one and half miles in length. The park has caused quite a stir in the realms of public park planning and the world of landscape architecture. It’s also arguably, wildly popular with regular people too.
The High Line is actually not the first of it’s kind as Paris boasts a park laid out on an elevated, abandoned railway bed an installation they call the Promenade Plantee. The French got onboard with the concept back in 1993 and there are similar projects underway in St. Louis, Philadelphia, Chicago, Jersey City and Rotterdam. Here in Washington, visionaries are working on a similar project perched on unused bridge pylons stretching across the Anacostia River.
Walking the New York version is interesting on, um, many levels. The first thing that I noticed is you’re seeing the city from a different altitude which changes your perspective. Instead of being down in the canyon of skyscrapers trying to peer up, you are now on the third floor with striking views of the Hudson River and a bird’s eye look at the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. If you’d like to watch that hustle for awhile, the design team provides “bleachers” to sit and watch the world flash by. The urban design features of the High Line include benches and sitting areas that cleverly blend into the linear feel of the experience.
Sections of the original rail line are part of the design as is a selection of flowering plants that will keep the gardeners filled with delight. Every time I walk through it I see something different and wish I’d brought the bigger camera. But not everybody gets it and that’s okay too.
