High Line

HIGH
LINE

NEW
YORK,
NY

Designed in collaboration with James Corner Field Operations and Piet Oudolf, the High Line is a 1.5–mile long public park built on an abandoned elevated railroad stretching from the Meatpacking District to the Hudson Rail Yards in Manhattan.

Found

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. It translates the biodiversity that took root after it fell into ruin in a string of site–specific urban micro-climates along the stretch of railway that include sunny, shady, wet, dry, windy, and sheltered spaces.

Design

Through a strategy of agri–tecture—part agriculture, part 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. The paving system consists of individual pre–cast concrete planks with open joints to encourage emergent growth like wild grass through cracks in the sidewalk. The long paving units have tapered ends that comb into planting beds creating a textured, “pathless” landscape where the public can meander in unscripted ways. The design addresses a multitude of civic issues: reclamation of unclaimed public space, adaptive reuse of outmoded infrastructure, and preservation as a strategy for sustainability. The park accommodates the wild, the cultivated, the intimate, and the social.

Post Occupancy

The High Line opened to the public in sections, starting in 2009, with phased openings in 2011, 2014, and 2019. From New York City’s investment of $115 million USD, the High Line has stimulated over $5 billion USD in urban development and created 12,000 new jobs. Initially imagined as a singular, idiosyncratic, local solution, last year the High Line drew 8 million visitors and has “gone viral” as a global development model: over one hundred cities worldwide have been inspired to transform their obsolete urban infrastructure into public parks.

  • 26th Street Viewing Spur
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  • Aerial view of Sunken Overlook over 10th Avenue
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Project information
Size (GSF)310000LocationNew York, United States
Milestones
Commission2000Phase I Complete2009Phase II Complete2011
Phase III Complete2014Spur Complete2019
Credits
Partner-in-ChargeRicardo Scofidio
PartnersElizabeth Diller,Charles Renfro,and Benjamin Gilmartin
Project DirectorMatthew Johnson
Project ArchitectsTobias Hegemann,Miles Nelligan,Ben Smoot,and Trevor Lamphier
Design TeamChiara Baccarini,Robert Condon,Hayley Eber,Gaspar Libedinsky,Jeremy Linzee,David Newton,Dan Sakai,Don Shillingburg,Flavio Stigliano,Brian Tabolt,Dustin Tobias,Alex Knezo,Andrew Cornelis,Anthony Saby,and Ayat Fadaifard
External credits
James Corner Field OperationsLandscape Architecture and Urban Design
Piet OudolfPlanting Design
BuroHappoldStructural and MEP Engineering
Robert Silman AssociatesStructural Engineering and Historic Preservation
L’Observatoire InternationalLighting Design
PentagramSignage
    Photography by Iwan Baan,Timothy Schenck,Cameron Davidson,Matthew Monteith,Julien Lanoo,and Iwan Baan