Reclaiming ruins for green spaces
Inspired by Paris’ Promenade Plantee, a new kind of urban park has sprung up across several US cities.
The High Line, an elevated freight spur that runs along the West Side of Manhattan and overlooks the Hudson River, was nothing more than a crumbling eyesore 10 years ago. But since it opened as a park last year, its plantings and vistas, tasteful design and intricate weave through the redbrick bastions of New York’s meatpacking past have been a hit. Though the High Line is not fully completed more than two million people have already visited.
New York’s High Line
Many of these visitors are interested in the potential for using outmoded infrastructure to add green space and transportation options as well as to promote cultural and commercial revitalization. The High Line’s success as an elevated park, its improbable evolution from old trestle into glittering urban amenity, has motivated a whole host of public officials and city planners to consider or revisit efforts to convert relics from their own industrial pasts into potential economic engines.
In Chicago, the old Bloomingdale Rail Line is envisioned as a 3-mile greenhouse containing a 100-acre urban farm and, underneath, a hydrogen-powered generator. The energy source, dubbed the “HYDROGENerator,” would be placed along an old aqueduct that runs under the railway, and would be used to power local schools.
Just across the Hudson from the High Line, The Embankment Preservation Coalition has been advocating for the preservation of an elevated stonework structure that runs through downtown Jersey City. The Embankment is part of what was once a freight railroad line comprising seven tracks. It’s envisioned as part of the 2,600-mile East Coast Greenway: a traffic-free path spanning from Florida to Maine.
Philadelphia’s Reading Viaduct is another project in the pipelines. Built in the 1890s, the Viaduct’s four elevated tracks run 10 blocks, offering spectacular views of the Philadelphia skyline. In 2003, local residents formed The Reading Viaduct Project for the purpose of advocating for the transformation of the Viaduct into an elevated linear park.
Chicago’s Bloomingdale Rail
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