Here I'm relaxing on The High Line
One of the highlights of our recent visit to New York City was discovering a new park called The High Line.
I’m grateful to New York area landscape designer Susan Cohan for letting me in on it via Twitter. (When she heard that we were in New York, she sent me the link to her blog post about The High Line. Since we love walking in the city, we immediately made plans to visit.)
A view of the city from The High Line park - Frank Gehry's IAC building (left)
One of the aspects of the park that interested me most is that the plantings were the work of Piet Oudolf, who is one of my garden design heros. His naturalistic ways with perennials and grasses have been a major influence on
my own plantings here. (The park itself was designed by landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, along with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro.)
New ties and rails connect plantings to The High Line's railroad history
The High Line park is built and planted on an old elevated freight railway running through Manhattan’s Lower West Side. The line was abandoned in 1980 and sat forgotten for more than 20 years, while grasses and brush began to grow between the tracks. When city authorities contemplated pulling it down, fans formed a group, Friends of the High Line, which hatched an audacious plan to turn it into an elevated park.
Grasses creep into lines in the paving to soften edges
The Friends group is now the conservancy that raises private funds to oversee park maintenance and operations through an agreement with the Parks Department. The High Line opened over the summer, and when all sections are complete, it will run a mile-and-a-half through Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen.
Eastern redbud, asters and New Zealand sedge in the rail bed
If you’re in New York – which is one of the world’s great walking cities – it’s well worth checking out. It’s open from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm. For more information about the park’s history and current happenings, visit
The High Line website and
blog.
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Tagged as:
New York City,
Piet Oudolf,
Travel
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds like another great park to visit next time in Ny City. I really like the look of the birches with the low, lush grasses.
Lene
Hi Lene: I love that look too. It’s such a great way to use low growing grasses as ground cover. Cheers/Y
I’m so glad you went! I just happened to see your tweet about being in NYC and a picture of your meadow popped into my mind and I knew you had to go. Oudolf is also a design hero of mine. I particularly like the photo of you on the rolling ‘railroad’ bench! Thanks for the mention also–that was very kind. –Susan
Hi Susan:It’s just one of those sharing information things that Twitter is so good at. Thanks again and warmest wishes, Yvonne
Oh I missed this post Yvonne! I love that they left the tracks there. This is just a fantastic park. And if very much reminds me of your beautiful garden.
Cheers!