Third phase of New York’s High Line redevelopment opens

Phase 3 of the High Line, New York City’s ambitious landscape redevelopment project, opened on Saturday, September 20. Since 2006, the High Line has been converting abandoned elevated railroad tressles along 1.45 miles of Manhattan’s Lower West Side into a free public park that parallels the Hudson River.

The first two sections of the park already draw more than five million visitors a year, according Crain’s New York.

The $35 million Phase 3, known as High Line at the Rail Yards, broke ground September 20, 2012, and officially opened to the public on September 21, according to Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit organization that has raised most of the money for the project. This half-mile stretch runs from West 30th Street at 10th Avenue (previously the railway’s northern terminus) to West 34th Street at 12th Avenue, across from the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

James Corner Field Operations is the High Line’s designer, working with Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Piet Oudolf.

The newest section—which curves around the 26-acre Hudson Yards real estate development—incorporates some of the old tracks and switches (made safe for pedestrian passage and play), as well as wild plant life.

The opening ceremonies included New York Senator Charles Schumer, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, High Line founder and president Joshua Davis, and actor Edward Norton, who is on Friends of the High Line’s board.

The finishing touch will be put in place next year with the installation of a short stub along 10th Avenue and 30th Street, according to the real estate website Curbed.

New York City’s recently revealed Green Economy Action Plan includes the goals of the decarbonization of buildings and developing a renewable energy system. The ambitious plan includes enabling low-carbon alternatives in the transportation sector and boosting green industries, aiming to create more than 12,000 green economy apprenticeships by 2040.