Inaugurated in June 2009 the “High Line” is a planted promenade built on a former railroad track on Manhattan’s west side, evocative of Paris’ “Coulée Verte.” It’s a project that invites us to think again about the place of nature in our cities.

Conceived by the New York landscape architects of James Corner Field Operations in collaboration with the architecture agency Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the first section of the project was opened on June 9^th, 2009.

Different tones and types of spaces line the promenade: vegetation hangs over the city, winds through the streets, crosses roads, and flirts with facades and their floors.

The project’s architects did not only rehabilitate an existing and neglected structure, they also reinterpreted the abandoned state in which they found it.

After its closure in 1980, the track was quickly overrun by vegetation; by a wild and urban nature that takes possession of the ruins and artifacts that humans discard. Inspired by this ruderal nature, the project team proposed a different kind of green space, enmeshed in the city and its temporality. The “High Line” invites us to reflect on the tension between the natural and the manmade, James Corner Field Operations invented their own term for it:  “agri-tecture.”

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Translated by Genny Cortinovis

Related content : green walkway, New York, rehabilitation