James Corner - Works

Works

Corner's designs bring back the open spaces of the natural wild with a rough, natural, and ecologically sound approach; this could be compared to the works of Frederick Law Olmsted, except more unbridled.

• The High Line is a 1.5-mile (2.4 km)-long stretch of abandoned railroad viaduct that runs from the Meatpacking district to Hell's Kitchen. The proposed design by Field Operations is meant to transform it into a 1.5-mile (2.4 km)-long park. Corner envisioned "fantastic, mixed perennial landscape" interspersed by "event spaces." Since its completion,it has made an impact on the surrounding blocks with the addition of 27 new residential towers, hotels, offices, and museums.

• Corner's Field Operations headed up a team that won the international design competition with its "Lifescape" design for the redesign of Fresh Kills Park, a project intended to salvage a massive landfill on Staten Island. The landfill is the largest in the country at 2,200 acres (8.9 km2), or three times the size of Central Park in Manhattan. Today, it is one of the largest publics work projects in the world. The winning design incorporates a World Trade Center memorial, because the landfill was temporarily reopened to accommodate the remains of the towers, as well as a strong, central focus on programs, habitat, and circulation throughout the new park. Fresh Kills Park is reminiscent of Olmsted's massive design for Central Park as far as work load, scale, and project purpose and design. Fresh Kills Park is said to be "one of the most ambitious public works projects in the world," considering 45% of the area is landfill and the remaining land is wetlands and lowlands. The goal of Fresh Kills Park is to create a world class large-scale park which restores the ecological systems, yet allows New York to optimize its local and regional access while reducing traffic congestion. The park will be developed as a setting for a range of outdoor activities, programs, and recreation that are unique to New York.