Competition Grid

Chapter 15Designing the High Line: Defining the High Line through Design Competitions

Robert Hammond

Since opening in 2009, the High Line has become an integral part of New York’s landscape, visited by nearly 8 million people annually. What most people don’t realise is that the High Line’s transformation was an unlikely story, and that a public design competition played a huge role in propelling the project forward. Stretching over a mile and a half through several iconic New York neighbourhoods – from the West Village, through the Meatpacking district and West Chelsea, and terminating at 34th Street, just below the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center – what was once an abandoned elevated rail is now a continuous greenway that is maintained, ...