The process by which the design and shaping of the physical city features are designed to fulfil the provision to the residents and the visitors of the city as per the municipal services. Contrary to common architectural structures, this concept mostly focuses on the designing of a group of buildings on a large scale. The standard architectural feature corresponds to the building of a single or individual building (Millington 2015).

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Therefore, to understand the planning and ideas behind urban construction planning, it is required that a real-world example needs to be set out so that the ideas behind the planning is clearly understood (Littke, Ryan and Tigran 2016). Thus, following would be a presentation of a detailed report that would hold a critical analysis of the real world Urban Planning in New York, known as the High Line Park consisting of the details of the construction. The planning of the entire detailed construction plan would be justified with the help of the perspective developed behind the Urban Designing of High Line Park in New York and the scope of the project.

Background of the Urban Design for High Line Park, New York

The idea behind the development of High Line park in New York has been initiated through an extremely great idea. The idea was to create an urban design that would help the organization in taking care of the situations in New York City as it was found to be littered with structural designs more than the capacity of the city altogether (Lang and Julia 2017). This is because the idea of re-using the spaces that have been wasted in the city because of the overpopulation of unplanned buildings have created problems for the municipal planning for providing services to the residents and visitors of the organization.

Figure 1: Landscaping of the Project

(Source: Loughran 2016)

This is why, in 2004, the organization of High Line Constructions and New York city partnered with each other to present a design competition inviting the people from the fields of architecture, engineering, art, landscape architecture, urban planning, and even from the field of horticulture. These are the phases where the competition had seen a vast incoming response for over 52 participants and this process resulted in the inclusion of the final phase where four final teams of architects were selected to propose their designs to High Line (Haas and Krister 2016). The directions of the urban designing need to be following a particular direction that was provided by the four final submissions. This is the way by which the program was first commenced (McCann, 2017). It was found that the project has drastically changed the overlook at which the city was created before and how it has been transforming the High Line Park in New York as well. They did not want to implement any outstanding architectural efforts on the project. It was not regarded as an establishment of the significant architectural system.

Figure 2: Landscaping Blue Print

(Source: Robinson 2016)

It was found that every part of the project has been divided into several sections but has also retained some portion of the planting that has been seeded on their own self for growing naturally. These places were either abandoned or were kept entirely out of sight for regular use (Robinson 2016). The number of these places has been increasing in number, and these were resulting in wastage of spaces. The idea behind the development of these was totally build up on the urban designing, and this was the reason why the High Line and New York to restore these places that were being abandoned or were disorderly beyond human use. to make sure that the problems were solved and the abandoned areas were utilized, the project idea was formulated (Li and Yun 2018).

Critical evaluation of the development from the perspective of the organization

The idea behind the Urban Designing plan for the High Line Park in New York was regarded as one of the good ideas that the city of New York has made to include in the programs of the city architecture. This was created as per the ideas developed to re-use the places where the modern architecture of the city has wholly overseen (Rothenberg and Lang 2017). Therefore, the urban design was utilized to make sure that these abandoned places were used to utilize the strategies of the urban designing technologies to ensure that no areas in the city were left as abandoned places.

As per the concept of Urban Designing, this is designing phase in construction that does not depend upon the general architectural plans, but it utilizes the already existing areas and then incorporates them along with the planning to set up a new development (Ascher and Uffer 2015). This is a feasible process to utilize or recycle the places that have been considered as abandoned. For this project, it was found that the city of New York was found to be providing many abandoned areas that were a result of the areas that were created as the random architectural structures did not consider these places and created individual buildings as per their free will. These abandoned areas were thus proposed to be utilized to be enabled urban designing areas, and thus, the city of New York and the High Line Park invested in these areas as a part of the West Side Improvement project.

Figure 4: Highline Park Plan

(Source: Sharky 2016)

Critically describing the ideas behind the development, it can be said that the places were deteriorating at such point that they had started growing things and the overseen areas put up with a lot of problems like abandoned railways and many more. This was one angle of developing the areas in such a way that the environment could also be benefitted rather than making the abandoned areas be utilized by the people in New York (Rana, Mostafa and Sherine 2019).

Right at that point of the time, when the High Line Park has developed the ideas with New York City, the areas were owned by different people, and they were keen on demolishing the areas. However, a Railroad Enthusiast called Peter Obletz had filed a petition for challenging the demolition content in the court. In the year 1999, the organization called Friends of High Line, found by Joshua David and Robert Hammond tried to preserve and reuse the High Line for providing access to the public as open space. The court also found that the petition was economically rational, and this is the reason that reform plan for urban designing began in the area in 2004 (Sharky 2016). Therefore, rather than demolishing the area, it is much rational thought to recreate the abandoned space in such a way that it would become accessible to the people in New York as well. Critical evaluation of the project also brings about the rationality of the proposed plan to describe how it has been a feasible idea to develop the area and formulate a plan for the development of the High Line Park.

Figure 4: High Line Park, New York Design Architecture

(Source: Kim et al. 2018)

Scope of the Project

The scope of the project would help in describe all the aspects of the project that would be required to make sure that the project has been progressing in the best way possible and the Urban Design strategy has been a feasible way to establish the idea behind the development of the High Line Park in New York City (Ávila 2018). The scope of the project would be described by the establishment of several questions to understand what were the main ideas that were behind the Urban Designing construction and how has it brought about the following developments.

Who were the main actors (who won/who lost?)

The Users: According to the study of the entire report, it is understandable that the users, one of the main actors behind the project, were the most benefitted by the project. They were not able to use the abandoned areas and hence, they were the most benefitted amongst all the actors of the project (Haase et al. 2017).

The Producers: The project analysis shows that the producers were also benefitted by the project as they had their intention towards utilizing the abandoned area for the sake of the people and they had been successful in doing so. Hence, their contribution was turned fruitful to serve the people in New York; the producers were at the right place as well.

The Regulators: The regulators were the ones who lost the project as an actor since they had to modify and change the regulations required for the abandoned area. Before the regulation was formulated, the area was about to be demolished by the actual owners who possessed the areas surrounding the abandoned area.

What are the key drivers of the project? Both at inception and ongoing?

The primary drivers of the project for High Line Park depended upon the key drivers of the utility of the place and the theory of Urban Designing. The theory behind the Urban Designing construction development considers space as two different meanings, one as the time or duration and the other as the area or extension. The space theory also considers the development of the plan through the categories of mental and physical space. Therefore, the key drivers behind the project at the point of inception were considered to be the mental and physical space. The organization of Friends of High Line Park and the city of New Yo9rk has a mental scape created to picturise the abandoned areas as developed constructions open to the people and visitors of the city, which they wanted to elaborate as the physical space as well.

Where during the areas of implementation, that is the ongoing project, it was considered that the key drivers of the project were the concept of aesthetics. This is the theory where the abandoned area was arranged in a creative way so that the elements of the areas could be developed in a much practical manner. This means that the places were beautified, but not rejecting the previous settlements or elements of the areas.

Are there other case studies that are relevant? What can be learned from critically analysing these projects?

New York is a city that has a number of areas that are found to be abandoned because of unplanned architecture. This is found to be the primary difference between the urban planning setup and typical architecture. The traditional architecture does not acknowledge the utility of the planned structure, and this is why there has been the utilization of the Urban Planning Model at different places in New York, to utilize the abandoned places (Kowarik 2019). There have been various projects in New York developed for urban designing implementation, and this is why it has been easy to identify that New York depends upon the Urban Designing techniques because of the wastage of abandoned spaces.

What are the key messages from your critical analysis that can be applied to other projects?

The key messages from the analysis have been identified to be the application of the correct theories based on the requirement of the project. This needs to make sure that the beautification of the city or the town is not hampered for the development of the abandoned area, and this is what the construction designers need to be kept in mind.

What were the roles/challenges for the urban designer?

The roles and the challenges for the urban designers in this particular case depend upon the beautification of the area while keeping in mind that demolition of the place should not be considered (Huebner 2019). The development should keep in mind about the aspects of the abandoned area as well.

What urban theory relates to this project? What readings are relevant? Can theory help explain/address any issues?

Aesthetics in urban design refers to the creative arrangement of the elements of a town in a beautiful and functional manner.

Figure 5: Preliminary Design Plan

(Source: Kowarik 2019)

Challenges of the project

The challenges regarding the project were as follows:

The beautification of the town needed to be kept in mind. Aesthetics in urban design refers to the creative arrangement of the elements of a town in a beautiful and functional manner (Loughran 2018).
The entire plan needed to be considered based upon the abandoned area, where the demolition of the area was not considered to be an option.
The development had to abide by all the developmental legislations as per the court allowed since the petition of creating the High Line Park was allowed by the court.

Urban Theory related to the project

The urban theory that was related to the project was the Theory of Aesthetics that was directly related to the project. This theory suggests that the Urban Designing of the place could be creatively arranged in such a way that the elements of the town were made possible in a much-beautified manner (Jianguo 2019). This ensured that the beautification of the town is restored as they are a prerequisite to the human health in the form of fresh air. Keeping the same in mind, the project was developed to make sure that the original placements of the abandoned area were restored and at the same time, the features of the abandoned areas were also considered to be included in the project to let the project become aesthetically beautiful and at the same time beautified the area.

Conclusion

Therefore, in conclusion, it can be said that the idea behind the development of the High Line Park in New York, build with the help of the strategies developed by Urban Designing techniques was a feasible plan developed by the organization of Friends of High Line Park. This organization tried to develop the areas in the High Line Park area in New York with the help of the development of a plan utilizing the Urban Designing technologies that would help in the utility of the abandoned areas in the city of New York. The report thus critically evaluates the idea based on the background of the construction project. The scope of the project was developed keeping in mind about the main actors of the project, the key drivers of the project at the inception stages and the developmental stages, the other case studies relevant to the of High Line Park development, the key messages presented as per the analysis applied to other projects and the roles and challenges that were faced by the urban designers. The analysis also describes the urban theory that was developed related to this particular project and the issues that can be solved with the help of developed ideas. The report also described the challenges of the project and the urban theory related to the project.

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