Four finalists picked for High Line

Art in America, Oct, 2004 by David Ebony

Friends of the High Line, an organization dedicated to preserving a 2-mile-long, disused elevated railway viaduct in Manhattan's Chelsea district, recently announced that four teams are finalists to redesign the structure. Once earmarked for demolition [see "Artworld," Oct. '01], the High Line now looks set to be transformed into a nearly $16-million public park, paid for primarily by state and local funding.

Among the finalists is a team led by landscape architects Field Operations, working in collaboration with Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, Olafur Eliasson, Piet Oudolf and Buro Happold. This group plans a series of walkways made of semitransparent concrete illuminated at night by fiber-optic material. The paths would meander through overgrown gardens and reflective pools with transparent bottoms.

An alternative scheme is put forth by a team led by Zaha Hadid Architects, working with landscape architects Balmori Associates, and architects Studio MDA, LLP (Marilyn Jordan Taylor), and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; Hadid proposes a network of platforms or stages that would make the High Line suitable for a variety of public outdoor events. Also featured would be a new education and cultural center serving in part as the primary entranceway to the High Line.

The project by Steven Holl Architects, collaborating with the landscape firm Hargreaves Associates and technical designers HNTB, calls for sections of the High Line tracks to be converted into movable platforms that could be opened periodically, illuminating the street below. It also plans a series of grand staircases and bridges leading to water taxi stands on the river. LED displays along certain sections of the High Line would advertise Chelsea gallery exhibitions. This team has proposed the fastest schedule, allowing for five blocks of the High Line to be opened to the public within a year and a half.

Finally, TerraGRAM, a team comprising landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, industrial designers D.I.R.T. (Julie Bargmann), and urban planners Beyer Blinder Belle (Neil Kittredge), proposes a series of flower gardens and groves of trees, with an emphasis on mustard seed and sunflower beds that could best replenish the High Line's impoverished soil. Visitors climbing staircases from the street would enter the park amid the lush verdure. The winning proposal will be selected later this fall.

Rendering of TerraGRAM's project, showing overhanging pavilion.