In many metropolises there are examples of old infrastructure that have become partially or entirely redundant because of new developments in transport and urbanization. Automatically the question arises of what to do with the leftover structures: Demolish them, or maintain them for different usage?

After demolishing the Boston inner city expressway the whole trajectory was rebuilt underground, during the operation called “the Big Dig”, costing almost $ 15 billion. In São Paulo a design competition was held in 2007 to either demolish or re-use the “Minhocão”, an elevated expressway of almost 3 km. In Paris there is the Promenade Plantée, a garden planted on a railway viaduct that ceased to function as such in 1969. In Rotterdam will shortly arise a new living and recreation area around the old “Hofpleinlijn” elevated railway tracks. And in New York a very special recreation area is being built on the Highline.

Read more:

Slide show of the Highline NY project, both artist impressions and photo´s of the construction site
www.flickr.com/photos/friendsofthehighline/…

Winning project of the Minhocão competition by José Alves and Juliana Corradini, adding a park roof while maintaining the traffic function
www.vitruvius.com.br/institucional/…

Other highlines
www.thehighline.org/newsletters/…

Urban study of the Hofpleinlijn, Rotterdam by DAF architects
http://issuu.com/daf-architecten/docs/hofpleinlijn

[Thanks to Reonald Westerdijk for his info about Highline New York]