The results of the recent design comp around the High Line are in – how great to see how it’s moved on from the conditional demolition order – and it’s also pleasing to see a good scheme proposed by good architects. Some choice quotes from the New York Times article (where free registration is required):

“A team of New York-based architects led by Field Operations and Diller, Scofidio & Renfro has been selected to design a master plan that would transform an abandoned section of elevated freight track into a public park that would weave its way north from the meatpacking district to Hell’s Kitchen, two stories above the city … City officials and members of the architectural team still have to work out the details … (n)onetheless, the selection marks a critical step in one of the most compelling urban planning initiatives in the city’s recent history. The preliminary design succeeds in preserving the High Line’s tough industrial character without sentimentalizing it. Instead, it creates a seamless blend of new and old, one rooted in the themes of decay and renewal that have long captivated the imagination of urban thinkers.”

“Perhaps more important, the design confirms that even in a real estate climate dominated by big development teams and celebrity architects, thoughtful, creative planning ideas – initiated at the grass-roots level – can lead to startlingly original results.”

“The idea is to create a virtually seamless flow between past and future realities, a blend of urban grit and cosmopolitan sophistication. But it is also to slow the process of change, to focus the eye on the colliding forces – both natural and man-made – that give cities their particular beauty. That vision has a more subversive, social dimension: to offer a more measured alternative to the often brutal pace of gentrification.”

Sounds promising.

New York Times: Gardens in the air where the rail once ran [via Adam Greenfield]