THE HIGH LINE

A short history of the elevated park constructed along an abandoned rail line in New York City.

Showing her background as an architect, Tentler-Krylov tells a tale that is more about structures, purposes, and visionary design features than people—though both leading figures in the still-ongoing enterprise and local residents in the affected neighborhoods do receive due attention, particularly in the substantial afterword. If the resulting narrative may seem a bit abstract to younger readers, it nonetheless documents a real triumph of urban renewal and innovative land use. Readers learn how tracks built to carry trainloads of supplies right into factories on Manhattan’s lower West Side were abandoned to weeds and weather until a group of concerned citizens envisioned a place where “trees and flowers would bloom overhead, and new cafés and art galleries would sprout on the streets below.” (Gentrification is touched on briefly in the narrative and more so in the backmatter.) Saved from demolition and turned section by section into a greenway with places to walk, sit, see art, and look out over the streets below, the High Line has sparked an economic boom for the area and inspired similar reclamatory projects in other large cities. In the bright, stylish watercolors, diverse crowds of figures work and socialize both on bustling city streets and, later, on swooping pathways amid abundant carpets of well-kept wildflowers and grassy swards. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A vibrant, if somewhat formalized, tribute.