Phase 3 of the High Line, New York City’s ambitious landscape redevelopment project, opened on Saturday, September 20. Since 2006, the High Line has been converting abandoned elevated railroad tressles along 1.45 miles of Manhattan’s Lower West Side into a free public park that parallels the Hudson River.
The first two sections of the park already draw more than five million visitors a year, according Crain’s New York.
The $35 million Phase 3, known as High Line at the Rail Yards, broke ground September 20, 2012, and officially opened to the public on September 21, according to Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit organization that has raised most of the money for the project. This half-mile stretch runs from West 30th Street at 10th Avenue (previously the railway’s northern terminus) to West 34th Street at 12th Avenue, across from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
James Corner Field Operations is the High Line’s designer, working with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Piet Oudolf.
The newest section—which curves around the 26-acre Hudson Yards real estate development—incorporates some of the old tracks and switches (made safe for pedestrian passage and play), as well as wild plant life.
The opening ceremonies included New York Senator Charles Schumer, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, High Line founder and president Joshua Davis, and actor Edward Norton, who is on Friends of the High Line’s board.
The finishing touch will be put in place next year with the installation of a short stub along 10th Avenue and 30th Street, according to the real estate website Curbed.
Related Stories
| May 25, 2011
Low Impact Development: Managing Stormwater Runoff
Earn 1.0 AIA/CES HSW/SD learning units by studying this article and successfully passing the online exam.
| May 25, 2011
Register today for BD+C’s June 8th webinar on restoration and reconstruction projects
Based on new and award-winning building projects, this webinar presents our “expert faculty” to examine the key issues affecting project owners, designers and contractors in case studies ranging from gut renovations and adaptive reuses to restorations and retrofits.
| May 25, 2011
Hotel offers water beds on a grand scale
A semi-submerged resort hotel is the newest project from Giancarlo Zema, a Rome-based architect known for his organic maritime designs. The hotel spans one kilometer and has both land and sea portions.
| May 25, 2011
Smithsonian building $45 million green lab
Thanks to a $45 million federal appropriation to the Smithsonian Institution, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., has broken ground on what is expected to be one of the most energy-efficient laboratories in the country. The 69,000-sf lab is targeting LEED Gold and is expected to use 37% less energy and emit 37% less carbon dioxide than a similar building.
| May 25, 2011
World’s tallest building now available in smaller size
Emaar Properties teamed up with LEGO to create a miniature version of the Burj Khalifa as part of the LEGO Architecture series. Currently, the LEGO Burj Khalifa is available only in Dubai, but come June 1, 2011, it will be available worldwide.
| May 25, 2011
Developers push Manhattan office construction
Manhattan developers are planning the city's biggest decade of office construction since the 1980s, betting on rising demand for modern space even with tenants unsigned and the availability of financing more limited. More than 25 million sf of projects are under construction or may be built in the next nine years.
| May 25, 2011
Olympic site spurs green building movement in UK
London's environmentally friendly 2012 Olympic venues are fuelling a green building movement in Britain.