Improvement For High Line

Naturalistic aesthetics

The selection and arrangement of grasses and perennials performing as a natural object are incorporating to the whole project. This naturalistic approach creates a wild and dynamic landscape. Living in New York such a dense city, people need a green and human-enjoyable area to escape from the city. Vegetation is the most important element in landscape, not only for its improvement of air condition function, but also for the delight feeling provided by the well-done combination of different plants species. In my opinion, the feeling of planting order could come from wildness. The status of wild growing plants is what people see in nature. The combination of different plants would obsessed people its layer, color, form and texture. Using wild plants is a common strategy for designers to create natural environment, because wildlife will be attract to this area making more dynamic ecosystem. The landscape of the High Line is dominated by several varieties of tough, drought-resistant grasses and wildflowers, the beauty of the combination just appeals to people’s needs, and the naturalistic scenery matches the aesthetic needs.

Function

Every design has its functions, most of them focus on people. People are always the judgers to evaluate a design beautiful or not, but everyone has its own taste towards beauty. Therefore, the function has become an important element to define a design. For me, aesthetics and function should work together, a design would be a failure without each of them. The intent of the High Line is intensifying the existing context and design it as an immersive experience, episodic walk and surreal journey in the City. In this project, preservation and innovation come together through the adaptive reuse of the existing structure as a new and compelling public space. With the functions to be met, the designers well-balanced the relationship between aesthetics and function by reducing the changes in the  design.

Beautiful improvement 

This section of High Line is narrow and straight, if just a normal street, people walk on that may feel fatigue with the continuing and repeating scenery. Moreover, it would be hard to control the discomfort feeling with the tall buildings around and heavy traffic underground.  In this project, the designers deal with the problems to a large extent, they minimize the impacts from these discomfort elements by guide people to the design and more beautiful scenery. Along with the pathways directed towards views of the Hudson River, visitors will have an authentic New York experience from the neighborhood streets and iconic city monuments. With the elevated 30 feet above the ground, the High Line provides a unique urban experience from the height.