For the first time in anyone’s memory, the High Line will be whole. The final stretch of the elevated park’s gardens, a 34th Street section known as the Rail Yard Preserve, has been planted and is set to open next month, seventeen years after the first section of the rail park welcomed visitors.
The timing says something about how New York builds. In the years since the High Line debuted, Chelsea and the entire West Side have been remade, with architect-designed towers now crowding around the park and the Hudson Yards complex rising at its northern end. Gardens, it turns out, often take longer to mature than buildings do.
“When the 34th Street garden opens, the entire High Line will be open and there will not be a construction shed anywhere on it for the first time in anybody’s memory,” Richard Hayden, the High Line’s senior director of horticulture, told the New York Times, which first reported the news.
The new garden, designed by the Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf, covers 2,561 square feet of planting beds and follows the same naturalistic approach as the rest of the 1.5-mile park, which Oudolf also designed. Sedges and grasses fill out the beds alongside Heuchera villosa “Autumn Bride,” a coral bells variety whose white flowers rise above velvety, light-green leaves in late summer and early fall. In all, Field Operations, the landscape design team that worked with Oudolf on the rest of the High Line, will plant 52 different types of shrubs and trees.
There is one notable difference: this will be the only section of the park planted in the ground. Everywhere else, plantings sit in 18 inches of soil on the elevated structure. The setting is hardly pastoral, with a huge parking lot on one side and a road on the other. But calming greenery set against a gritty urban backdrop is, as the source puts it, quintessentially High Line.
The Rail Yard Preserve, which runs from 30th to 34th Streets between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues, originally received only minimal plantings and maintenance, according to Friends of the High Line. That meant basically weeding, not the curated intervention that gives the rest of the park its lush feel. The 34th Street entrance will now be fully planted, and improved signage at Twelfth Avenue is meant to make the approach feel more welcoming to visitors.
The 34th Street garden is not the only reopening. The Prairie Terrace at 17th Street will also return after nine years shrouded in scaffolding because of construction alongside it. Because that construction changed the sunlight patterns on the terrace, the new plantings were chosen to suit the new conditions. They include blackhawks big bluestem, great globe thistle, sea holly and black-eyed Susans.
For a park that has long served as both neighborhood amenity and tourist magnet, the milestone arrives as the autumn foliage season is in full swing. The new garden’s late-summer and early-fall bloomers will have their moment before the cold sets in.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the High Line’s 34th Street Rail Yard Preserve opening?
The Rail Yard Preserve is set to open next month, completing the High Line as a whole park for the first time. It has already been planted and the article notes it follows seventeen years after the first section opened.
Who designed the High Line’s 34th Street garden?
The garden was designed by Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf, who also designed the rest of the 1.5-mile park. Field Operations, which worked with Oudolf on the rest of the High Line, is planting the 52 types of shrubs and trees.
Where is the Rail Yard Preserve on the High Line?
The Rail Yard Preserve runs from 30th to 34th Streets between Eleventh and Twelfth Avenues. It covers 2,561 square feet of planting beds.
Why is the 34th Street section of the High Line different from the rest of the park?
It is the only section of the High Line planted in the ground rather than in 18 inches of elevated soil. Everywhere else in the park, plantings sit on the elevated structure.
When did the Prairie Terrace at 17th Street reopen on the High Line?
The Prairie Terrace at 17th Street returns after nine years shrouded in scaffolding, with new plantings chosen to suit changed sunlight conditions. The article reports this reopening alongside the 34th Street garden.
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