Gardens of the High Line

August 1, 2017

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 Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2017
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 plantingsfrom trees to grassesthat 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)