The High Line : A Field Guide and Handbook

A Field Guide and Handbook to the High Line is a pocket-sized artists’ project offering an alternative survey to some curious aspects of New York’s elevated High Line park. Presenting an account – both anecdotal and scientifically minded – of the fauna and insect-life that thrives there, the book serves as a colorful introduction to the vast and varied ecology of the High Line. Full of peculiar observations, rumors, speculations, and mostly-true facts, Field Guide captures the manifold experience of moving along the elevated greenway through a towering cityscape.

Editor Ethan Hauser and art historian Kenneth Helphand have offered essay contributions that consider the historical significance of the structure and place it within a broader trajectory of urban design through precedents of “an elevated plain”. The project is designed by New Yorker-illustrator Jorge Colombo and includes several of his own digital artworks that are finger painted on an iPhone. Illustrations of High Line wildlife are by Bryan Wilson. This re-edition of Field Guide includes a new cover colorway, updates the High Line’s 87-year timeline (bringing us to present), as well as an expanded map from Naomi & Emmy Reis to include the newest section of the High Line extending north of West 30th street.

This is the updated 2nd edition, co-published with Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit organization that maintains and operates New York’s High Line park.