2003 - New York, NY, USA
The Highline Park
New York, NY, USA
CLIENT Friends of the Highline / STATUS Competition Finalist, 2nd Place, 2003 / SIZE 1.5 miles / DESIGN TEAM Balmori Associates, Zaha Hadid Architects, SOM, Studio MDA, Studio MDA, Merill LLP
When The High Line is redeveloped, it will bring an exciting range of new spaces into play for New Yorkers. The team recognizes that the qualities of movement through these spaces will define the potentials of The High Line, and that understanding these must be the primary outcome of the design work.The redevelopment of the High Line demanded multidisciplinary teamwork at the highest levels of creativity and design experience. The team established by Zaha Hadid Architects, Balmori Associates, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP and studioMDA linked together these world-class offices with substantial building experience into a networked studio for excellence in urban design.
Each of these offices is renowned for well-defined strengths and specializations, and yet together they have discovered a common language and approach in responding to the spatial and temporal challenges underlying the project. The creative adaptation and reuse of old structures typically requires that we suspend our preconceptions of their uses and qualities, and one of the best ways of opening our thinking to new possibilities occurs through the thoughtful process of graphic abstraction for which Zaha Hadid’s office is famous. The team discovered a natural synergy in this approach, for it enabled open discussion of a complex range of issues and details long before deciding on specific uses and placements.