Urban Garden and Adaptive Reuse Spark Changes in Chelsea

The Highline. Chelsea, NYC. Opening in 2009, the Highline is a beautiful park built on a bustling 1.45 mile long elevated platform. It’s built on a former unused railway track. The project was innovative in bringing green space to the city and is an adaptive reuse of a deteriorating space. It creatively features 500+ species of plants and trees, and public art. It reimagined the west side of Manhattan, making it a top tourist attraction. An unintended consequence is that it transformed the surrounding neighborhood to exclude its original community. The result is an entirely changed socio-economic character of the neighborhood. It’s a lesson in how reuse can be a double edged sword and how challenging it is to bring an existing neighborhood along with community improvements.