High Line Wins 2017 Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design

The High Line, designed collaboratively by James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf, has been selected by the Harvard Graduate School of Design as the recipient of the 2017 Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design. The prize committee has elected to allot the monetary prize of $50,000 associated with the award to Friends of the High Line, in recognition of the organization’s originating efforts and continued stewardship behind the project.

As a design intervention, the High Line is equal parts infrastructure, landscape, and architecture, built around an impassioned commitment to post-industrial retrofitting, urban revitalization, recuperation of public space, and allure of the natural environment. Elevated 30 feet above Manhattan’s streets, the High Line offers a floating promenade overlooking New York’s urban culture, from the Midtown skyline to the Hudson River and the blend of activity on the roadways beneath it. The park’s plant design is inspired by the landscape that grew on the High Line during the 25 years after trains stopped running along it; various species of grasses, perennials, trees, and bushes were all chosen for their hardiness, sustainability, and textural and color variation.

“This year’s selection committee has chosen to recognize the High Line not only for its exceptional design quality, but also because it was a cooperatively-orchestrated, multifaceted endeavor in which citizens, top-tier design professionals, and public authorities worked together to innovate and successfully implement a new archetype for urban design, one that is now being replicated globally,” says Diane E. Davis, chair of the 2017 Green Prize jury and chair of the GSD’s Department of Urban Planning and Design. “The rare alignment of actors, each reaching distinction at the highest professional level, made the High Line both remarkable and worthy of this prize, embodying the best in the field of urban design while also contributing to the collective urban realm.”

“The future of the urban environment lies in the reinvention of infrastructure and the rethinking of public space,” says Ricardo Scofidio, Founding Partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro. “Thanks to the visionary Friends of the High Line and a group of exceptional collaborators, the High Line does both. We are delighted the High Line is being honored by this award and hope it continues to inspire cities to develop sustainable public spaces.”

An exhibition on the High Line will be on view at the GSD’s Druker Design Gallery during the GSD’s 2018-2019 academic year.

For the full press release, please visit the Harvard Graduate School of Design's website