Hospitality Design - December 2013 - 86

now

the high line effect

Since its opening in 2009, the High Line in
New York has been an unprecedented success,
drawing more than four million visitors a
year and recently making a Travel & Leisure
magazine list of one of the 10 most popular
landmarks in the world.
By transforming an abandoned rail line into
an urban park and mixing greenery and existing
historic artifacts with modern benches and
walkways, the park has been deemed a perfect
example of adaptive reuse that has redefined
a neighborhood and been a boon to real estate
development, stores, hotels, and restaurants in
the area. (The third and last section of the park,
the Rail Yards, will extend the space to West
30th Street and will open sometime next year.)
The High Line's lessons have not been lost
on cities around the world. According to Annik
La Farge, author of On the High Line: Exploring
America's Most Original Urban Park, "People
in cities all over the world are looking at their
infrastructure-former railroads, bridges,
underground tunnels-with an eye
to transforming them into urban greenways
and parks."
The organization cites seven of these projects
in various stages of development in the New
York Tri-State Area alone, and 13 throughout
the U.S., from Atlanta to Los Angeles. Among
them: Lafitte Greenway in New Orleans, a
three mile-trail linking the French Quarter and
Treme neighborhoods to City Park; Greenway
2020, which intends to create a 51-mile
greenway along the Los Angeles River; and the
606, an unused elevated rail line in Chicago that
will connect four separate neighborhoods with
parks and art installations.
The influence stretches around the globe
as well (only fair, since the High Line was in
part inspired by Promenade plantée in Paris).
In London, La Farge reports, advocates seek to
convert a "mail rail" tunnel into a mushroom
farm; and in Seoul, plans are afoot to create a
park from a former military base. However,
"the one that excites me most," she says, "is the
Petite Ceinture in Paris, a nineteen-mile disused
railway that encircles the entire city. It includes
both elevated and below-grade sections and
traverses many neighborhoods." One part of this
"little belt," a nature trail, has already opened.
These projects are in varying states of
development: some are already taking root,
while others are mere gleams in advocates' eyes.
Most probably, not all will be completed. "[Each
one] has countless hurdles to overcome," says
La Farge. And as to whether any of them can
match the success of the original, it remains

086

December 2013 hospitalitydesign.com

1
2

1. Still in its early stages,
a project in Philadelphia
would convert the
former Reading Viaduct
into a greenway; the
project would also
include the conversion
of underground tunnels.
(Photo by Annik La
Farge)

2. Only four years old,
the High Line is already
one of New York's most
visited attractions.
(Photo courtesy of
thehighline.org)

to be seen. "Everyone involved with the High
Line understood from the beginning that the
viaduct was a unique, magical site, and that
the architectural and landscape design had to
preserve the spirit and the character of the place.
What the founders and the team they assembled
understood was the place itself had to drive
the project. [They] innovated everywhere, but
everything started with the High Line itself, and
that respect for the original place and its history
is the most fundamental lesson for any other
project to take away."

"I have always been a visual
person who needs to touch
and feel an object to relate
to it. However, with social
media inspiring sites and
blogs such as Pinterest,
Instagram, Remodelista,
Desire To Inspire, Design
Inspiration, and MoCo
Loco I have a design library
on my laptop, iPad, and
phone. It's so easy to research
what is going on now by
simply running through
these sites to see what is
trending in real time across
the world and in your own
backyard."
Heather Maloney
King & Grove
http://www.thehighline.org http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - December 2013
