Gardens of the High Line : elevating the nature of modern landscapes /

The High Line, once an abandoned area filled with wildflowers, has been transformed into an art museum, a community area, a walkway, and a botanical garden. It stretches for more than a mile on an elevated railway structure through sections of Manhattan and attracts over seven million visitors a year. Unique? No; William Robinson's The Wild Garden (1870) highlighted this type of model garden. However, the High Line is an especially noteworthy amalgamation of an authentic industrial ruin transformed by the skills and knowledge of inspired landscape designers. The copious photographs are the book's glory; they illuminate the major part of the work that describes the 13 sectional gardens covering the entire distance of the original tracks. Manhattan's urban vistas provide a wonderful background for the nearly constantly changing, carefully selected vegetation. The original wild flora of the High Line consisted of 161 species. The design team expanded the plant diversity to about 400 species, including many grasses, perennials, and even trees. How such diversity is exploited for color, form, and seasonal variation in such a restricted environment gives this book instructional value for any garden designer. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Leroy G. Kavaljian, California State University, Sacramento

*Starred Review* First, the content of this wondrous book should not be confused with that of On the High Line (2014), which also employs photos by coauthor Darke but is a walking guide more concerned with points of interest seen from the mile and a half of abandoned elevated train track running from Lower Manhattan to the rail yards near Twelfth Avenue and West Thirty-Fourth Street than with the extraordinary, diverse plantings from trees to grasses that animate it. Oudolf, one of the lead designers of the project, which was completed in 2014, expounds on the overarching beauty of the project's contradictions: the garden sits on a monumental example of America's heavy industry while presenting the lightness of being of the plant world, a study in precision of design and management of a series of gardens whose plants and patterns are constantly in flux, in both form and color. Darke's captivating images, hemmed in by the previously mentioned book's smaller format, are given lavish display here, often filling double-page spreads and leading the reader northward up the trail, stopping to showcase a flower, or a piece of sculpture, the curve of a rusted section of track adorned with blooms, or a view of the world beyond. A wholly enchanting celebration of the transformation of one sliver of urban industrial landscape.--Moores, Alan Copyright 2010 Booklist

The High Line is a tribute to nature, industry, and New York City. Running from Gansevoort Street to West 34th Street, between 10th and 12th -Avenues, the park was inspired by the persistence of plants, the solidity and beauty of 19th-century railroad -architecture, and city dwellers' longing for wild places amid the humanmade. High Line designer Oudolf and landscape consultant and author/photographer Darke offer a narrative of the park's creation and ongoing stewardship by volunteers. Its funding by the Friends of the High Line serves as a reminder of the intense commitment required for community-supported public parks anywhere. The High Line retains the wildness of "pioneer" or first plants but never at the risk of any one plant taking over completely. Each garden offers an experience unique to its location within the city and along the Line. A walk through its 1.45-mile entirety encourages personal interaction and reflection. Darke's photos, taken from the park's start to its end and at all times of day in all seasons, tell the story best. -VERDICT -Oudolf's aesthetics and mastery of plants will engage gardeners, landscape designers, and city dwellers everywhere and inspire a new regard for the regeneration of abandoned spaces.-Jeanette McVeigh, Univ. of the Sciences, -Philadelphia © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.