The Quest for the High Line in Suburbia

This summer, I’ve had two clients as for a yard design that resembles the High Line public park in NYC.  If you’ve ever been to the Highline, you’re probably not surprised that people want the park in their backyard. It’s really amazing!  The park is located on an abandoned elevated train line along the lower west side of Manhattan.  It was collaboration of James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf and showcases contemporary and traditional ideas about landscapes, urban design & life and plants.  The project has completely redefined the area and gets millions of visitors. 

Transplanting the park to a yard is a big feat.  Though the park is narrow in many parts, it is also very long allowing for lots of space for plantings and features.  It also has the West Village and Chelsea as a backdrop while the viewer is elevated above the city.  The vantage point is much farther than if the park was on the ground.  People love the mix of modern lines with a focus on perennial & native plants, the sense of fullness as the design maximizes every nook and cranny along the revamped train line.  I find the translation from urban setting to suburban yard challenging and fun.  So I thought I’d show you how it can be done.

One of the projects I completed this summer is a great example.  The house is in South Orange, and is a turn-of-the-century Victorian/Queen Anne.  It has the high interior ceilings and the ornate details on the exterior.  The windows and porches scream the style too.  

The yard doesn’t have the same push toward the Victorian style.  The Victorian yard would push dense foliage, flowers and bushes against the house to hide the bottom parts just like the gowns of the day would hide the ankles, knees and legs of women.  The owners wanted a twist push the yard design to be more modern/contemporary while never completely detaching from the house’s Queen Anne roots.  So in essence, they wanted contemporary yet traditional…all with an eye to use the High Line as a model for the final product.  

First thing, we did was take a look at a bunch of images to make sure I understood what they really liked about the High Line and other projects.  We looked at plant options, color palettes for the flowers as well as landscape elements such as edging, walls, decking, patios, stairs and coverings.  The image below is an example of some of the things we discussed.  

Next comes the analytically part.  The first thing I did was look at the existing conditions (see image below).  The areas in RED are the existing beds.  The initial thought was simply replant them with different flowers and shrubs.  We also discussed a preliminary idea for a back deck.  Both of these moves didn’t feel very designed…and definitely didn’t feel like the High Line.

So I took a step back and started just drawing lines (represented by red lines below) from the existing elements in the yard to see if it could speak to me about its natural flow.  I draw bunches and bunches of lines to just get a feeling about it.  As I got overloaded with lines, I started eliminating them and emerged a more yard-specific layout that began to both have a contemporary and traditional voice.  

The beds took on a more diagonal layout that helped to beef up the beds (in a more Victorian way) while creating a more narrow pathway around the house.  The beds were edged with cor-ten steel to accent them and create a clean look.  The initial deck layout was changed as well to keep with the new orientation of the beds.  The change in direction also increased visibility into the backyard and away from a utility shed beside the house.  

The yard has a dramatic change of sunlight access. The backyard is very shady and the front yard is very sunny.  To plant the yard with the appropriate plants and flowers, it’s really important to make sure the different sunlight zones are defined.  It’s equally important to select species that have a similar bloom schedule and pattern when they are in two different areas with sun access.  

The Highline has a specific “look”.  The narrow pathways of the train line require densely planted areas.  Oudolf is a genius with matching plants that accent each other.  He will use flowers and grasses together in a very specific way…having an abundance of tall grasses with flowers with rich color like Bee Balm, Milkweed and Joe Pye Weed to add pop here and there.  Too many flowers can overtax the eyes, and turn a bed of color into a blur of lost detail.  Using more grasses than flowers, the senses are massaged and allowed to take in the entire scene.  

Another thing that the Highline does is use transitions from different zones of shade to enliven the diversity of plants.  To do this with a yard, you need to have a strong understanding of what plants can manage two different amounts of sunlight.  The same plant will grow when it gets lots and lots of sunlight versus when it’s not getting so much.  These two conditions will be side-by-side, so balancing the plants and adding accent flora is important. 

I setup the example below with 4 zones running the length of the yard.  These zones would travel through the different shade conditions. Zone 1 was got the most shade and 4 got the less shade.  From there, it was a matter of picking grasses that could create a backdrop for the different areas.  Instead of showing exactly where each grass should be planted, I zoned out the areas to give the final plantings a feeling of naturally occurring versus being put in the ground in a mechanical way.  From there, the flowers were located with more exactness.  This was to help guide the eye across the yard without overtaxing it, and to really preserve the desire of a highline-like aesthetic.  The more shade areas had the grasses replaced with ferns, which I feel have a similar presence as grasses.  

They move and flow the same way in the wind as grass and the colors (green and browns) can be matched almost exactly.  For this example, they wanted privacy in the backyard.  So many people use evergreens to create privacy.  I think evergreens have their place, but they are overused.  Instead of evergreens, the planting plan called for a grove of spicebushes.  Spicebushes grow to be thick and dense with leaves.  They are deciduous, so they lose their leaves in the winter.  But with the right grouping, you won’t lose the sense of privacy.   

The same principles used for the side of the yard were then replicated for the rest of the yard.  The plantings were designed to not only be plantings, but to highlight a new perspective for the yard.  Instead of using squared off beds around the house, the angles created a geometry surrounding the home.  This was how we blended the traditional with the contemporary.  It is a Victorian house, so deep beds are a common approach to landscaping. 

The angles guide you around the yard and create a series of thresholds and places of arrival to make each part of the yard feel like a new discovery in the same way the Highline does.