Highline Park

Backblip.

THE darling of contemporary landscape architecture, Highline Park in NYC lives up to the hype. It used to be an elevated railway, which was abandoned and was supposed to be demolished. While nobody was looking, the plants took over, and it became this amazing urban jungle, the best-kept secret. When the city planned to demolish it, a group of neighborhood folks banned together to save it. A famous photographer took some grand shots, money was raised, hot-shot designers were hired, and here it is. It basically is one massive green roof, mile an a half long: all rainwater is collected and used for irrigation. All plants were chosen for their low maintenance. The planting plan was done by Piet Oudolf, one of landscape architects on the forefront of the "perennial movement".

The project did everything right: it reuses an existing structure, it is as "green" as possible, and it catalyzed the revitalization of the neighborhood that surrounds it. Next step, typically, is gentrification (rise of rents and property prices due to an area becoming "discovered" and hip). I am not sure how much higher prices in NYC can get, so maybe it won't happen.

Here is a really cool video about the history and design of the project.