The Daily Dig

The High Line railroad once a busy rail line that served industry in New Yorks Hells Kitchen, Hudson Yards, West Chelsea and the Gransevoort Market District, is set to open this spring as major win for urban renewal. Construced in 1929 it spans 22 blocks from 34th street to Gansevoort Street, and win complete it will over the pubic 6.7 acres of open public park space atop an elevated rail deck. test. This grand public promenade will offer magnificent views of the Hudson River on one side and the Manhattan skyline on the other.
Many of the former warehouses and factories surrounding the High Line have been converted in to art galleries, design studios, retailer, restaurants, museums, and residences. Much of the construction has been underway for a number of years now, and planting has begun. The landscape and plantings were conceived by Piet Oudolf an influential Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author. He is a leading figure of the "New Perennial" or "New Wave Planting" movement, using bold drifts of herbaceous perennial plants and grasses which are chosen for their structure as much as for their flower colour if not more so. His books include Gardening With Grasses, Dream Plants for the Natural Garden and Planting the Natural Garden, Designing With Plants and Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space. His list of design projects includes Battery Park, New York, ABN Amro Bank, Netherlands, Hoogeland -Netherlands, the Lurie Garden a gigantic green roof over the car park of Millennium Park Chicago, and Scampston Hall, England. His own garden, at Hummelo, near Arnhem in the Netherlands, makes reference to traditional Dutch gardens in its use of neatly clipped evergreen hedges. The first phase of the project is slated to open spring 2009. For more information check out the Friends of the High Line at http://www.thehighline.org/