High Line Blog

Stop by to enjoy the white flowers of this woodland succulent, native to the eastern United States, this time of year.

The High Line’s planting design is inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew up between rail tracks after the trains stopped running in the 1980s. Today, the High Line includes more than 300 species of perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees — each chosen for their hardiness, adaptability, diversity, and seasonal variation in color and texture. Some of the species that originally grew on the High Line’s rail bed are reflected in the park landscape today.

This week we share with you one of our gardeners’ current favorites.

Visitors walk along the Philip A. and Lisa Maria Falcone Flyover as the pathway ramps up just north of West 25th Street.
Photo by Karen Blumberg

High Line Photographer Karen Blumberg captured this lush springtime shot last week of the Philip A. and Lisa Maria Falcone Flyover, the elevated walkway on the High Line between West 25th and West 27th Streets.

The Falcone Flyover is a subtle design feature that complements the natural microclimate found in this stretch of the park. North of West 25th Street, visitors find that the historic warehouse buildings draw closer to the historic railway, protecting this section from the wind and creating a naturally shady environment that captures moisture. When Joel Sternfeld photographed this area in the year 2000, it was home to tall sumacs and a thick understory.

When the High Line Design Team of James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf turned their attention to this area of the High Line, they looked to work with and celebrate the natural microclimate created by the close proximity of buildings when creating the design for the park.

Now, along the Falcone Flyover, a pathway ramps up gently to a height of eight feet above the ground, carrying visitors through a canopy of magnolias, sassafras, and serviceberry trees. This time of year, spring blooms like Solomon’s seal, red baneberry, a variety of phlox, and vibrant green mosses cover the forest floor, and the canopy is growing thicker with trees’ leaves.

Take your time while walking the Falcone Flyover next time you're at the High Line to enjoy seasonal foliage and blooms.

Taken in the 1950s, this photograph shows a passenger car at West 16th Street. Around the same time this image was captured, construction was underway on the interstate highway system, which would lead to further decline in freight traffic to and from New York City. Photo by Ed Doyle

This special blog post, the second in a two-part series (see part one), was written by Sonya Kharas of the NYU Food Studies Program and Nutshell Projects. If you’d like to learn more about the rich history of food and the High Line, purchase tickets for Sonya’s walking tour, Feeding the Future, which will be held on Wednesday, May 8, 2013.

Feeding the Future

A slow, inefficient, and costly transportation system was incongruous with New York City in the 1920s. After all, this was the city that completed two of the world’s tallest skyscrapers — the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings — within the same year, and the city about which F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Everything is possible. I am in the land of ambition, and success.”

And so, in 1929, the City of New York and the New York Central Railroad Company embarked on an ambitious project that would elevate the grade-level tracks along Manhattan’s West Side and, more importantly, modernize the handling of the city’s daily supplies of foodstuffs.

Work continues on High Line Headquarters and the future location of the Whitney Museum of American Art as lush spring foliage pops up along the southern end of the High Line. Photo by Timothy Schenck

Crews are busy installing the interior finishes to High Line Headquarters, a four-story building located next to the new downtown location of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which is also under construction.

Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, High Line Headquarters will serve as a critical gathering space for visitors, with a new elevator, public restrooms, and a public meeting room when it opens later this year.

The building will also help keep the High Line’s landscape thriving, by giving gardeners, custodians, and maintenance technicians direct access between storage facilities and the park. This will streamline the transfer of materials, vehicles, and equipment -- one of the current challenges of maintaining a park elevated 30 feet above the street.

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