The High Line, an elevated freight rail viaduct on Manhattan's West Side, was saved from demolition by community advocates and reopened in stages from 2009 as a linear public park. Its planting and design reused the derelict structure, drawing millions of visitors and catalysing intense real-estate investment in the surrounding neighbourhoods. The project became an international model for adaptive reuse of obsolete industrial infrastructure as parkland. It also intensified debate over the gentrification and displacement that such high-profile regeneration can bring.
The High Line popularised adaptive reuse of industrial infrastructure as a regeneration strategy while sharpening debate over its gentrifying effects.
See it on the timeline →