Crosscut argues that it’s time for Seattle and other cities to learn from NYC’s example and start turning old elevated structures into parks and other good uses (pointer via Planetizen).
[T]hink a bit about the advantages of elevated linear parks. They can provide remarkable views, often through the slots of the cityscape. They open up access to back-door and upper-level spaces. They make connections with gritty urban history. The design experience is not the usual bland blend but instead has the visual excitement and tension of green spaces set amid rusting iron forms. The Seattle aesthetic has been to make open space as green and pastoral as possible, as if blotting out the city. Time for a richer palate, a more dissonant and beautiful chord.
(Image from thehighline.org)
June 17th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Elevated linear parks don’t seem to be safe enough for children…Also, in case you haven’t noticed , west coast people, except for a few kids, don’t like “gritty urban..” anything. Downtown San Francisco, or Belltown in Seattle, are about as “gritty” as most can tolerate….. The solution that was employed in San Francisco was to tear down the Embarcadero elevated freeway, and even though the views of the city as one sailed in on the freeway were unforgettable, the results of tearing it down are spectacular.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Why are those elevated structures disused? Is it because they badly need expensive maintenance due to rotting concrete, etc.?
June 17th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
The tracks are disused because we no longer need/have freight trains running through Manhattan. I don’t think the tracks were ever used for passengers.
The challenge in replicating the High-Line elsewhere is that it’s very high-maintenance and expensive for a park. It requires lots of security and thus is only viable in high-traffic, destination areas like Chelsea. In New York there are plenty of other elevated tracks in Queens or the Bronx, but they don’t have the foot traffic to warrant such a lavish expense.
I’m sure there are a few elevated tracks around the country that could be redone, but not many. However, it’s very easy to turn ground-level tracks into a park, for example the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Why stop at railway tracks? In Toronto it could be done to the Gardiner Expressway.
It’s an option to consider if moving the Gardiner to run over the rail lines downtown is on the table (it’s an option in the current Environmental Assessment process apparently).
It could be the largest elevated park in the world. People talk about it cutting off downtown from the lakefront, but Condo towers already do that. The view from there could be quite spectacular.
Just my crazy idea of the day.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
By the way, the High Line is truly spectacular but it’s not a park in a conventional sense. You certainly wouldn’t send your children there to play. It’s really a New York take on a Zen meditation garden. It’s about experiencing the city while contemplating nature and mortality. I know that sounds overblown, but I’ve never been in another place quite like it.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro are, in my opinion, the finest architects in the world. Their work is extraordinarily smart without being pretentious or annoying clever. Yes, it’s beautiful, but it also changes the way you experience space and, in the case of the High Line, time.
I’m thrilled that it’s in New York.