High Line Blog

You may know Gaultheria procumbens as "wintergreen," one of the plant's common names. Photo by Friends of the High Line.

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 one of our gardeners’ current favorites with you.

10th Avenue Square was transformed into a pumpkin patch, presided over by Princess Neftaly Garcia, High Line Education Leader (right). Photos by Rowa Lee

On Saturday, October 26, 2,500 kids and adults joined us for the third-annual Haunted High Line Halloween celebration. Families came in costume to enjoy art activities, music, and “real” High Line ghosts stationed from Little West 12th to 17th Streets. The celebration drew on the spooky history of Manhattan’s west side, where dark factories loomed and dangerous freight trains ruled “Death Avenue.”

We'd like to thank the students of the School of Visual Arts' Interior Design program for creating out first haunted train tunnel!

See photos from the day after the jump.

The new design concept for the High Line at the Rail Yards includes an immersive bowl-shaped structure on the Spur, a wide section of the High Line that extends over 10th Avenue at West 30th Street. Image by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, courtesy of the City of New York

Tonight we unveiled the latest design concept for the Spur, a unique area within the third section of the High Line at the Rail Yards, at a public presentation at the School of Visual Arts Theatre.

Neighbors, supporters, members, and friends gathered for a presentation of renderings of the Spur by the High Line Design Team’s James Corner of James Corner Field Operations and Ric Scofidio of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, as well as an update on the progress on construction and the project timeline by Friends of the High Line Co-Founder Robert Hammond.

Join us after the jump for the just-released renderings of the Spur.

This image from earlier this season shows the exposed steel framework of the High Line at the Rail Yards. Since then, this area, known as the Spur, has been filled in with a new concrete decking. New design renderings for this space will be unveiled during a program this upcoming Monday. Photo by Timothy Schenck

It is an exciting moment in the construction timeline for the High Line at the Rail Yards. The first phase of the rail yards is taking shape and this upcoming Monday, November 11, designs will be unveiled for the Spur, pictured above, a section of the High Line at the Rail Yards that extends over 10th Avenue at West 30th Street.

For this week’s Photo of the Week we’re featuring two of our recent favorites of the Spur from photographer Timothy Schenck who has been expertly documenting the progress of construction at the High Line since before our first section was underway in the spring of 2006.

Read more after the jump.