A stealthy reimagining of urban public space Elizabeth Diller
Public space must be as free and abundant
as the air we breathe.
In our real estate-driven cities,
where open space
is increasingly carved up,
traded and sold as a commodity,
architects must defend public space,
advocate for more of it,
and reclaim space that’s been
squandered by neglect
or lack of vision.
In our practice,
this sometimes means
openly sparring with a client
to carve out public space,
or inventing stealthy,
under-the-radar ways
of insinuating space for the public
into otherwise private building projects.
Either way, all democracies
need champions.
It’s our role, as stewards
of the urban realm,
to will public space into existence
and to democratize our progressively
privatized cities.
In 2004,
my studio came into the orbit
of two inspired citizen activists
who launched a campaign
to save a 1.5-mile stretch
of derelict infrastructure
and convert it into a public park.
After years of struggle
and mounting pressure
from local developers,
the High Line was saved from demolition,
and we, along with our partners
James Corner and Piet Oudolf,
were put in charge of designing it.
We fell in love
with the accidental ecosystem
that developed there
after years of neglect.
Rather than making architecture,
we vowed to protect this place
from architecture.
The site was too fragile
to share with the public,
so we reinterpreted the DNA
of this weird, self-seeded ecosystem
that was half natural and half man-made,
into a hybrid we called agritecture.
Typically, parks serve
as an escape from the city.
But this park was conceived
as an entry into the city,
a portal into the city’s subconscious.
Floating over the fast-paced
streets below,
the High Line became a place
to experience an alternative New York,
with views that could never
make it onto a postcard.
In a culture that rewards
relentless productivity,
the High Line became a parenthesis
in the day for doing nothing
but sharing in the pleasures
of being urban.
Unexpectedly, the High Line became
one of the most popular destinations
in New York
and a landmark on the world tourist map.
Last year, over eight million people came.
The High Line also went viral.
Hundreds of cities around the world
were inspired to build one of their own.
We touched a global nerve.
In a time of environmental awareness
and shrinking resources on the planet,
cities realized they could seize
the opportunity to reimagine
aging infrastructure
as a sustainable way
to give back space to the public.
After all,
access to green space
is an environmental justice issue.
In 2013, we were selected
to design a park in central Moscow.
Thankfully, the city pivoted from its plan
to build a giant commercial development
on this historically sensitive
and politically charged site,
adjacent to the Kremlin, Red Square
and St. Basil’s Cathedral.
It would sit on the footprint
of the former massive
Khrushchev-era hotel “Rossiya.”
We faced a moral dilemma.
Was it possible to make
a democratic public space
in the context of a repressive regime?
Despite being a stone’s throw
from the Kremlin,
we decided to focus
on Moscow’s aspirations
of becoming a progressive,
cosmopolitan city.
As national governments are failing us,
cities hold the promise of social reform.
The park would be a site
of civic expression,
a foil to the military parades
and other demonstrations
of power in Red Square.
Given the vulnerability
that public spaces pose
from opposition,
governments try to control them.
The architectural brief we got
discouraged large open spaces,
presumably out of concern
for public assemblies
and social unrest.
Our response was to make
open meadows and plazas
whose uses could be open-ended.
Instead of the manicured gardens
and restricted inventories
of official plantings, like rose bushes,
we introduced a principle
we called wild urbanism.
The park would host native plants,
sourced from the four major
regional landscapes of Russia.
This was our stealthy move.
It was embraced as an expression
of national pride.
In contrast to typical parks in Moscow,
where you’re only permitted
to walk on pathways,
fenced off from vegetation,
this park is unscripted
and encouraged immersion in the landscape.
Zaryadye Park has been
immensely successful.
One million people came the first month.
So, not surprisingly, Putin politicized
Zaryadye as his park for the people.
Meanwhile, the park’s liberating effect
on a repressed younger generation
was caught on security cameras.
Government officials
blamed American influence
for corrupting Russian youth.
But for us, this was a great
sign of success.
We came to believe
that regimes come and go –
some more slowly than others –
but public spaces endure.
They can work quietly, even subversively,
to empower the public.
The threat to democratic public space
comes also from financial greed.
Returning to New York,
the neighborhood surrounding the High Line
had transformed from a sea
of open parking lots
to the most expensive
real estate in New York.
The park inadvertently fell victim
to its own success
and became an agent of rapid urbanization.
And with it came gentrification.
I question what is
the responsibility of the architect
in shaping the aftermath of urban change
that they’ve unwittingly produced.
I felt compelled to respond
on the site where it happened,
to use the public space of the High Line
as an urban stage for an epic performance
called “The Mile-Long Opera.”
It would be a meditation
on the unprecedented speed of change
of the postindustrial city,
its winners and losers.
And it would embody a sense of nostalgia
we feel for an irretrievable past
and apprehension
about an alienating future.
People tend to think of opera
as expensive and exclusive.
This would welcome everyone for free.
I stepped into the role of creator,
director and producer,
and basically off a cliff,
but I brought some brilliant
collaborators with me.
“The Mile-Long Opera” was performed
by a giant ensemble
of 40 church, community and school choirs.
One thousand singers in all
were distributed
along the 1.5-mile
stretch of the High Line.
(Singers singing opera)
Elizabeth Diller: Each singer
performed solo
to a promenading audience of thousands
each night for seven nights,
each expressing their unique way
of coping with contemporary life.
Through anxiety, humor,
longing, vulnerability,
joy and outrage.
The city was their backdrop.
During some particularly dark days
of political strife in the country,
across a big swath of Manhattan,
there was a palpable sense
of shared values and citizenship
among New Yorkers.
But development around the High Line
was not slowing down.
A huge real-estate play
called Hudson Yards
was in the process of becoming
the largest mixed-use development
in US history.
In its wisdom,
the city of New York retained
a small piece of that huge property
for a yet-to-be-determined
cultural facility,
and asked for ideas.
And while not the ideal spot,
we thought, “Why not be opportunistic?
Why not use the space
produced by commercial development
for countercultural activity?”
With our partner David Rockwell,
we had a vision for a building
and an institutional ethos.
The new entity had to be responsive
to an unpredictable future
in which artists would be free
to work across all disciplines
and all media,
at all scales, indoors and out.
To do so, we had to change the paradigm
and challenge the inertia of architecture.
Made up of a fixed building
with a stack of multi-use galleries
and a telescoping outer shell
that deploys on demand,
The Shed is able to double its footprint
for large installations,
performances and events.
If you don’t need the extra space,
you can just nest the shell
and open up a large outdoor space
for cultural and public use.
The structure deploys in five minutes,
and uses the horsepower of one car engine.
The Shed is a start-up
realized with a group
of visionary collaborators
based on a hunch and sheer will.
(Music)
While it’s a small pocket of resistance
on publicly owned land
and a giant commercial site,
The Shed asserts its independence
strongly through its content.
As populations expand
and city growth is inevitable,
it’s important for those of us who build
to relentlessly advocate
for a democratic public realm
so that dwindling urban space
is not forfeited to the highest bidder.
Thank you.