Four finalists picked for High Line

Friends of the High Line, an organization dedicated to preserving a 2-mile-long, disused elevated railway viaduct in Manhattan's Chelsea district, not long ago announced that four teams are finalists to redesign the manner of making Once earmarked for demolition [see "Artworld," Oct '01] the High Line now direct the eyes set to be transformed into a nearly $16-million public park, paid for primarily by means of state and local funding.

Among the finalists is a team l through landscape architects Field Operations, working in collaboration with Diller, Scofidio + Renfro Olafur Eliasson, Piet Oudolf and Buro Happold. This clump plans a series of walkways made of semitransparent [i]be[/i] consolidated illuminated at night by fiber-optic material. The paths would meander from one side overgrown gardens and reflective lochs with transparent bottoms.

An alternative scheme is bring forth by a team l through Zaha Hadid Architects, working with landscape architects Balmori Associates, and architects Studio MDA, LLP (Marilyn Jordan Taylor), and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; Hadid offer proffers a network of platforms or stages that would make the High Line suitable for a variety of public outdoor incidents Also featured would be a fresh education and cultural center serving in part as the primary entranceway to the High Line.

The cast by Steven Holl Architects, collaborating with the landscape firm Hargreaves Associates and technical designers HNTB calls for sections of the High Line tracks to be transformed into movable platforms that could be render free of accessed periodically, illuminating the street below. It also plans a series of grand staircases and bridges leading to water taxi stands upon the river. LED displays along certain sections of the High Line would advertise Chelsea gallery exhibitions. This team has propos the fastest schedule, allowing for five blockades of the High Line to be make opened to the public within a year and a half.

Finally, TerraGRAM, a team comprising landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, industrial designers D.I.R.T. (Julie Bargmann), and urban planners Beyer Blinder Belle (Neil Kittredge), moves a series of flower gardens and thickets of trees, with an emphasis upon mustard seed and sunflower beds that could best replenish the High Line's impoverished soil. Visitors climbing staircases from the highway would enter the park amid the lush viridity The winning proposal will be chooseed later this fall.

Rendering of TerraGRAM's cast showing overhanging pavilion.

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