Designed in collaboration with James Corner Field Operations and Piet Oudolf, The High Line is a 1.5-mile long public park built on an abandoned elevated railroad stretching from the Meatpacking District to the Hudson Rail Yards in Manhattan. When the existing – operational between 1930 and 1980 – fell into disuse, there were discussions about demolishing it, but the Friends of the High Line Association were against this, and finally it was maintained, considering that the positive impact of this new public space on the value of the neighboring buildings would surpass the price of the ground on which it went up. Inspired by the melancholic, unruly beauty

of this postindustrial ruin, the project translates the biodiversity that took root after it fell into ruin in a string of site-specific urban micro-climates. The paving system consists of individual pre-cast concrete planks with open joints to encourage emergent growth like wild grass through cracks on the sidewalk. The long paving units have tapered ends that comb into planting beds creating a textured, ‘pathless’ landscape where the public can meander in unscripted ways. The park accommodates the wild, the cultivated, the intimate, and the social.