When urban greening becomes an accumulation strategy: Exploring the ecological, social and economic calculus of the High Line

Abstract

With over 80 million visits since its opening in 2009, the High Line is one of the world’s most visited urban parks. The product of a collaboration spearheaded by landscape architect James Corner, it has become one of the most celebrated symbols of landscape urbanism. Despite its enormous success and widespread acclaim, the High Line has also been criticized for its inattention to issues of equality. Our contribution is to unpack how the neoliberal logic implicit in the High Line effect is delivered as a process of socioecological subtraction that ultimately leads to the accumulation of capital for a select few, and to ask how urban designers might rethink the High Line model to take into account more redistributive principles of justice. What might a just production of urban nature look like, and for whom?

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