The High Line: A Park to Look Up To
by Victoria Tentler-Krylov (Author)
An illustrated history of New York City's internationally famous High Line, one of the world's most innovative and inspiring public parks
Imagine a very different New York City--one whose streets are filled with horses and buggies and people on foot. Now imagine the block-long freight trains that shared the same roads delivering goods to the westside factories. How did New York solve the problem of trains barreling through busy city streets? They built a train track above all the hustle and bustle, and the High Line was born. Once trains were no longer needed to transport goods, the High Line sat abandoned, ready for demolition. But the City had other ideas. The High Line opened as a 1.45-mile-long park in 2009. It quickly became an iconic, must-see attraction and a marvel of landscape architecture, admired worldwide for its history, beauty, and creative union of urban design with greenspace. As the High Line became a global inspiration, longtime residents of the neighborhood surrounding it also advocated to keep the park feeling like home.
Packed with facts and gorgeously illustrated, The High Line: A Park to Look Up To is the story of an innovative idea and the people who made it possible--from the ingenuity of those who first built it for the needs of industry, to those who reimagined it as a community space for art, recreation, and the preservation of nature.
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Publishers Weekly
In this accessible, cinematic history, Tentler-Krylov (Building Zaha) shows how New York City's High Line rallied a community and revolutionized public green space. The book opens with a bang: balletic, digitally enhanced watercolors show a street-level freight train barreling toward the city's West Side factories as historical residents run for their lives. Elevating the railway in the 1930s helps to alleviate the danger, but the once-bustling tracks are abandoned within 50 years. They fill with wildflowers and grasses in the spring and are blanketed with snow in the winter, creating "a constantly changing, silent, forgotten world in the sky." When demolition seems inevitable, community members envision a new life for the newly dubbed High Line, and in scenes that give off a stylish, palpable energy and reflect the city's diversity, they organize, plan, and plant, creating a park that winds its verdant way between high-rises and becomes a model for the world. The author doesn't sidestep the rapid gentrification brought about by the park's popularity, ending with the hope that the same indomitable community spirit that made the park a reality will address economic inclusion, as well. An author's note and timeline conclude. Ages 4-8. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (May)
Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
New York (N.Y.)
Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)
High Line (New York, N.Y.: Park)
High Line (New York, N.Y.: Viaduct)
