Design teams selected for High Line project

Real Estate Weekly, June 9, 2004

Friends of the High Line and the City of New York announced that four teams of renowned architects, landscape architects, engineers, planners, and other professionals have been selected as finalists to create a master plan for the High Line, an elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side.

"Transforming the High Line into a unique and accessible elevated park will be one of the most important things we will do for future generations in New York City," said Amanda M. Burden, Chair of the City Planning Commission.

"The team we choose must be of a caliber that matches that important task. Fortunately, we are selecting from among the freest minds in architecture and landscape design, whose team submissions demonstrate the creative vision necessary for this project. I am thrilled to be taking part in selecting these talented finalists."

Each team is led by an architecture firm, a landscape architecture firm, or multiple firms joined in collaborative leadership. Below, team leads and principal consultants, in alphabetical order. Full team listings can be found at the end of this document:

* Field Operations, landscape architects; Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, architects; Olafur Eliasson, artist; Piet Oudolf, horticulture; Halie Light & L'Observatoire International, lighting.

* Zaha Hadid Architects, architects; Balmori Associates, landscape architects; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (Marilyn Jordan Taylor), architects; studio MDA (Markus Dochantschi), architects.

* Steven Holl Architects, architects; Hargreaves Associates, landscape design; HNTB, technical design.

* TerraGRAM: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, landscape architects; D.I.R.T. Studio (Julie Bargmann), industrial site design; Beyer Blinder Belle (Neil Kittredge), urban design.

Team Visions will be on Display at the Center for Architecture July 15-Aug. 14. The design approaches of the finalist teams will be exhibited at the Center for Architecture starting Thursday, July 15, when an opening night panel discussion will be moderated by Rick Bell, Executive Director of AIA New York Chapter.

Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place. For information call (212) 683-0023.