4. A Competition Held To Solicit Designs For the Park’s Renovations Yielded Some Strange Results

A plan for a mile long swimming pool. And suddenly acceptable public nudity. Images by The High Line.

When the project to renovate the railway was green-lit in 2003, Friends of the High Line held a design competition trying to find the best approach to reinventing the space. Some of the ideas they received were quite true to what the park is today: grass, benches, elevators, and some clever re-appropriations of the former railway tracks. What they also got were some wacky plans to convert the entire space into its own building or a mile-long public swimming pool.

You can check out more discarded ideas here.

A heavier design featuring a building built into one of the High Line spurs’ ends