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The Inside Story of New York City's Park in the Sky
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
October 2011
On Sale: October 11, 2011
352 pages
ISBN: 0374532990
EAN: 9780374532994
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
How two New Yorkers led the transformation of a derelict
elevated railway into a grand—and beloved—open space The High Line, a new park atop an ele-vated rail structure
on Manhattan's West Side, is among the most innovative urban
reclamation projects in memory. The story of how it came to
be is a remarkable one: two young citizens with no prior
experience in planning and development collaborated with
their neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business
owners, and leaders of burgeoning movements in horticulture
and landscape architecture to create a park celebrated
worldwide as a model for creatively designed, socially
vibrant, ecologically sound public space. Joshua David and Robert Hammond met in 1999 at a community
board meeting to consider the fate of the High Line. Built
in the 1930s, it carried freight trains to the West Side
when the area was defined by factories and warehouses. But
when trains were replaced by truck transport, the High Line
became obsolete. By century's end it was a rusty, forbidding
ruin. Plants grew between the tracks, giving it a wild and
striking beauty. David and Hammond loved the ruin and saw in it an
opportunity to create a new way to experience their city.
Over ten years, they did so. In this candid and inspiring
book— lavishly illustrated—they tell how they relied on
skill, luck, and good timing: a crucial court ruling, an
inspiring design contest, the enthusiasm of Mayor Bloomberg,
the concern for urban planning issues following 9/11. Now
the High Line, a half-mile expanse of plants, paths,
staircases, and framed vistas—runs through a transformed
West Side and reminds us that extraordinary things are
possible when creative people work together for the common
good.
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