In January 2001, the Design Trust for Public Space and Friends of the High Line undertook a comprehensive planning study for the reuse potential of the High Line, the disused elevated railroad track that runs along Manhattan’s West Side from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street. The Design Trust funded two fellowships: one to led a comprehensive planning study resulting in the publication Reclaiming the High Line, and one to create this website.
The site experiments with alternatives to the master plans and perspectives typically used by planners in conveying “vision” for the city. The site shifts between four environments or stories: one populated by animals, another by developers, another by tourists and another by the glamorous New York society that supports the High Line. Users travel from one story to another through a series of links and trap doors.
