Since New York’s High Line opened in 2009, the world has seen a lot of copycats, from Philadelphia’s Rail Park to Sydney’s The Goods Line. The original, designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and landscape designers James Corner Field Operations and Piet Oudolf, is a one-and-a-half-mile-long elevated park that runs on former rail tracks on the West Side of Manhattan. Its final phase (the Spur) will wrap up this June, and recently a landmark cultural arts center opened along the route. But the world’s latest linear park is less a copy than perhaps the original architects’ first iteration of a series: In London, DSR is collaborating with local design firm Neiheiser Argyros to transform an approximately three-mile-long stretch along the southeast bank of the River Thames into The Tide, the city’s first elevated linear park—and phase one opens this July.
London’s The Tide will be a three-mile-long stretch of landscape, recreation, and food and drink, partly elevated and partly at grade.
Along a river bend known as the Greenwich Peninsula, The Tide will serve as a walking, running, and meditation path (dedicated spaces for the latter are planned along the route), partly elevated and partly at grade, with programming split between the levels. Its neighborhood is a former industrial area mostly known as the home of the O2 Arena, but it is actively being shored up with the recent development of nearby Canary Wharf , the city’s second-largest business district. But unlike the High Line, which made use of an abandoned industrial space, The Tide will invent a new green space within an industrial locale.
The trilevel park includes cantilevers suspended up to 30 feet in the air, providing views of the city and water.
“The design of The Tide seeks to embed a new public realm into the daily rhythms of Greenwich Peninsula by layering together its currents of activity into a thickened landscape,” explained DSR partner-in-charge Benjamin Gilmartin in a statement sent to AD via email. The project was envisioned as a series of elevated landscaped islands supported by tripod-shape structures that shade a path underneath. Each island features distinct plantings (many natives), designed by landscape firm Gross Max. The supports are prefabricated and contain integrated data, electric, lighting, and landscape systems.
The project is in a former industrial neighborhood in southeast London that has been shored up by the development of a business district in nearby Canary Wharf.
When phase one opens on July 5, the first kilometer of the linear park will be completed. Features include cantilevered overlooks (up to 30 feet high) that provide city and water vistas, sunken gardens for rest and conversation, restaurants and cafés, and public art by the likes of Damien Hirst and Allen Jones. Says Keri Sibson, of project developer Knight Dragon: “Most importantly, it’s a place for everyone.”