The Sundance Channel recently released a series of short videos called High Line Stories focused on New Yorks new High Line. “An industrial relic on Manhattan’s west side, reborn as a park in the sky.” These are really well done and both insighful and inspiring. Check out the website for the entire set, I’ve posted a few clips.

The shorts feature people like Adam Gopnik, writer for the New Yorker, who documented the abandoned rail line before he even knew that it was going to one day turn into a fantastic park. “Parks play a role in the life of cities that are hard to overstate. All the great city parks of the world are not separate from their cities. They are involved in their cities both physically and architecturally and spiritually in deep ways.”

The Commissioner of Parks and Recreation for New York City, Arian Benepe, talks about the importance of parks in the city. He says, “You can’t have a neighborhood without a park. It’s very simple.” (I agree!) He discusses that the city wanted to tear the rail line down because it was a blight on the city but through community activism and a lot of effort from passionate people who wanted to see something great happen, the High Line park design was born. Now, it is stimulating the economy and everyone wants to build by it, close to it or on it. The High Line has become an attractor and is single-handedly revitalizing the area.

James Corner describes his first look at the old rusty rail line and how he was struck by the grasses and plant life emerging through the cracks. This made an impact on him and he wanted to find a way to “celebrate the energy of plant life emerging through a hard surface”. He is joined by planting designer Piet Oudolf who describes using perrenials to inspire and “open people’s eyes”. Check it out:

“When I heard they were turning it into a park, it seemed like something was turning right in the universe”. Ethan Hawke describes climbing up there with his brother when they were younger and enjoying the high line for “the way that you watch nature fight back, time fight back…it was very magical”. He was happy to hear that the design would keep the grasses because that’s what he remembers the most about the old space and in how the best part about the design is allowing history not to be forgotten but rather made to be beautiful, something that can live on and teach others.

And these are but a few shorts from the series from architects, artists, city officials, activitist, celebrities and landscape architects. Check out the Sundance website for more videos on the evolution of New York’s coolest new park, The High Line.

The overwhelming message? If you have the passion and desire to do something, no matter how how out of reach it may seem when you begin…go for it. You can accomplish great things, one step at a time.