designing the highline

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New York's High Line is a little known and long-neglected "urban wilderness" - 1.5 miles of elevated rail tracks stretching down the West Side. Built in the 1930s, abandoned by the 1980s, it was threatened in the 1990s by a group of real estate developers hungry for the land underneath. In 1999, the "Friends of the High Line" was formed to save the tracks and turn them into a walkway linking Penn Station to the Hudson River Park. (If you've never walked down that stretch - trust me: it's a great example of vibrant urban life, but it could use some green space.)

In 2002, the city officially decided convert the High Line back to public use, and by 2003 the Friends of the High Line put into motion an open design competition to introduce new ideas for public life and city renewal.

Four teams have been selected to design the final plan for the space; their illustrations will soon be on display at the Center for Architecture in New York, but the online results from the open competition is an inspiring overview of ideas for reclaiming and reusing older city structures.

Also check out: Keller Easterling's alternative "master plan" for the High Line.

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