NEW YORK On Manhattans Far West Side, they built an elevated railroad in the 1930s because freight trains and pedestrians kept colliding down on 10th Avenue. The trains won.

On the High Line today, the locomotives are long gone, and the pedestrians have emerged the victors. Seven days a week, a shifting throng simultaneously observes and forms its own pageant. By 10 a.m., the early joggers, commuters and yoga students have melted away before the arrival of the walkers, heading up through Chelsea or down to the Meatpacking District. They stop like currents in an eddy for a while, or they find a grassy backwater, but mostly they go with the flow. The polyglot visitors find a trendy destination, the natives a transcendental sidewalk that stretches a mile and a half, now that the third and last segment opened this fall.

The path narrows to just a few feet for much of its course, yet almost 5 million visitors pass one another every year in relaxed good cheer. Just five years after opening, the High Line has become one of the top visitor attractions in New York more popular even than the Statue of Liberty and an emblem of the reversal in the historical decline of the American city in general and Gotham in particular.

It has become an archetype for cities everywhere craving their own High Line mojo. In Washington, it is the inspiration for a proposed elevated park where the old 11th Street Bridge crossed the Anacostia River and, separately, for a component in the long-range redevelopment of Union Station.

The reasons for its broad appeal are both tangible and elusive but reduce to this: The High Line serves up the Big Apple on a platter 30 feet high. Look eastward, and you can savor the view of Midtowns iconic skyscrapers. Look west, and the Hudson River lolls by, black and sparkling in the autumn light. The High Line takes you, voyeuristically, past the windows of high-rise offices and apartments and, increasingly, close to the swanky condos rising around it. You can look down to the bistros of the once-gritty Meatpacking District, or the leafy cross streets of West Chelsea, or the ribbons of silver commuter cars in the Hudson Rail Yards.

For all the attention-grabbing vistas, the focus eventually settles on the parks interior character. It is a runway where people go to see and to be seen, like a return to the 19th-century promenade synonymously a place and an act, where generations past put on their Sunday best and headed to the park, not to walk but to strut.

And while the High Line propels movement, that doesnt necessarily mean getting from here to there, said Chris Reed, a landscape architect who teaches at Harvards Graduate School of Design and who takes students to the High Line. The act of the promenade is something we lost in the 20th century, and a project like this allows us to focus on just that, the experience of movement.

The idea of reusing old transportation corridors is not new in Washington, the C&O Canal, and the Capital Crescent and W&OD trails, are obvious examples of such reincarnations. But the High Lines success has been so swift that its success appears in hindsight to have been preordained. This would be a misread.

From rail cars to wildflowers

After the last train squealed its way along the tracks in 1980, the High Line became just another peeling grave marker to old, working New York. In time, the rails took on a mantle of rust, and the rotting ties and track ballast turned into a growing medium for weeds. Some of the weeds took the form of pretty wildflowers goldenrod, milkweed and Queen Annes lace; some were thuggish trees and vines. Together, though, they imprinted the idea of vegetation turning the High Line into a garden, however feral, apart from the city.

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New Yorks High Line: Why the floating promenade is so popular

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THE dad of murdered landscape architect Jo Yeates has welcomed a new TV drama telling the story of an innocent man wrongly suspected of killing his daughter.

David Yeates told the Daily Echo how he believed the programme will shine a light on police failings in their investigation which he believes led to delays in catching the man responsible.

Speaking from his Ampfield home, Mr Yeates said there had been inadequacies in the police probe - and he hoped the programme, which airs next month, could bring a positive and help improve future investigations.

He also spoke of the family's loss at it prepares for the fourth anniversary since Jo was brutally strangled, before her body was found dumped at the side of a road in Bristol.

The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies will hit TV screens next month, telling the story of Mr Jefferies, who was arrested on December 30 after the discovery of her body on Christmas Day in 2010.

Jo vanished on December 17 after going for Christmas drinks with colleagues in the city.

Mr Jefferies, a retired schooltmaster, was later released without charge.

He was later awarded and undisclosed payout, thought to be several hundred thousand pounds, after suing eight newspapers who he says hounded him and made distressing allegations relating to the killing.

Miss Yeates' next door neighbour Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak was jailed for life in 2011 after he was found guilty of her murder.

Last night her family said they had been consulted about the programme but did not have serious objections because it was telling the story of Mr Jefferies and not about Jo - although he admitted seeing the trailer on TV was a bit of a shock.

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Murder victim's family welcomes drama on man wrongly suspected of killing her

Rendering courtesy of James Lagnestei

A variety of deciduous trees and shrubs are marked on the landscape plan for the assisted living facility.

Waldwick Plans to buffer a proposed assisted living facility from neighboring properties and questions about the accuracy of those plans dominated the Nov. 19 zoning board hearing on an application by Formation-Shelbourne Senior Living Services.

Formation-Shelbourne is proposing to build an 85-unit, 100-bed assisted living facility on 3.5 acres north of Wyckoff Avenue, west of Walgreens. The facility, to be known as Solana of Waldwick, would require the demolition of houses at 237, 239, 241, and 247 Wyckoff Ave. As proposed in May, the facility would require four variances and a minor subdivision.

Architect Paul Donaldson of PRDG, Dallas, testified about the views of the facility from the neighbors homes, and views of neighboring homes from windows in the facility.

Landscape architect James Langenstein of Longstone Gardens, Pa., testified about how the building would be screened by trees and other plantings.

About 60 people attended the hearing.

"Our objective was to screen as much [of the facility] as possible," Langenstein said. He said that means "sufficient heavy screening to block views" from all sides with deciduous and evergreen trees, plus flowering trees and shrubs.

Langenstein showed a chart indicating where specific tree and shrub species would be planted to screen the building as well as prevent headlight beams from shining into residential homes. He said 14-foot-high trees would be planted in the parking lots, but other trees on site would range from 6- to 8-feet-tall.

Plantings will include 8-foot hemlock and white pines, plus 30 6-foot-tall holly trees. Small evergreens and deciduous shrubs will be planted next to neighboring properties "to help keep down lights and glare" from cars and outside lighting, Langenstein said.

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Testimony on Solana focuses on landscaping

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Introduction

The Landscape Architecture Program at Virginia Tech is committed to discovering, developing, and disseminating knowledge related to the discipline and profession of landscape architecture. Our educational approach stresses the importance of mutual responsibility within the learning community and favors students who are devoted to actively pursuing their education. Students and faculty work together to achieve the highest standards of disciplinary and professional preparedness and to develop the capacity for lifelong learning and professional leadership.

The high level of preparedness achieved by our graduates has been recognized in the DesignIntelligence national rankings of accredited landscape architecture programs. For 2010, Virginia Tech's Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Program was ranked #1 in the nation, and the Master of Landscape Architecture Program was ranked #2. In 2013, the BLA program was ranked #2 in the nation, and the MLA program was also ranked #2.

Stay up-to-date with the latest developments via our blog.

The first professional BLA degree program is comprised of 157 credit hours in four major study areas: Virginia Tech Core Curriculum (36 credits) Landscape Architecture Core Curriculum (97 credits) Supporting Professional Courses (9 credits) General Electives (15 credits minimum)

Graduation checksheet for BLA students

Requirements for a minor in Landscape Architecture

The Landscape Architecture Program offers professional and post-professional Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) degree options at the main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia and in the National Capital Region (NCR) through Virginia Tech's Washington Alexandria Architecture Center located in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

Simultaneous degree programs for MLA students

Doctoral studies in architecture and design are for those students who desire to pursue careers in the research fields of advanced professional and academic practice and teaching. The program draws from the School faculty's diverse experiences and backgrounds to establish a climate in which scholarship and creativity can flourish.

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Former students garden plans finally bear fruit

Landscape Architect Carolyn Ramsbottom has graduated from Lincoln University but a special piece of design work she did while studying there two years ago will be coming to fruition on Labour Day.

While at the School Of Landscape Architecture (SoLA) in 2012 she and fellow student Gerrard Thomson won a competition to design reflective, cultural-based gardens for the Places of Tranquillity project.

These will being publicly unveiled next week at 3pm by project partners Lincoln University, Healthy Christchurch and Greening the Rubble. It has taken time to find suitable land, but they have finally been built on the corner of Manchester Street and Cambridge Terrace.

Both former students have gone on to careers as landscape architects but the design was their first public project and they are excited to see it come to reality.

Ms Ramsbottoms garden has a South East Asia theme and she has been involved in the layout right down to digging holes and putting in the plants.

It had to be (at the time) a 'temporary garden', able to be done by hand where possible and to be transferable to a permanent site later down the line. Working within these constraints as well as trying to create a tranquil space, and a great design was a challenge, she said.

It's amazing really and I still can't quite believe it. The prospect of seeing a design placed in the city centre is a real privilege and I can't wait to see it completed.

I just hope that it does what it says on the tin and gives a feeling of tranquillity, whatever that may be for an individual. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so time will tell whether it's a success, Ms Ramsbottom said.

She now works as a landscape architect and nursery assistant at a tree nursery and has free rein to design projects.

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Former students garden plans finally bear fruit

Former Victorian government architect Geoffrey London speaks at a public forum "City in Crisis?" in August. Photo: Darrian Traynor

Try this game: Picture AAMI Park, the eye-catching stadium that resembles the trajectory of a soccer ball. The Cox Architecture-designed stadium lifts the Punt Road perimeter of Melbourne's sports precinct, but contributes to the fabric of the whole city. Now imagine it as a bland rectangular stadium. According to former Victorian Government Architect John Denton this was a narrowly avoided architectural own goal.

"The Cox scheme was right on the cusp of being chucked out and gone to a cheap, minimal-cost standard, rectangular thing," Denton says. "[Until] we stepped in."

Next, picture the Royal Children's Hospital without all the kid-friendly, fun stuff - the aquariums, murals. And, more importantly, without its restorative views of Royal Park.

AAMI Park and the Royal Children's Hospital are just two of the many public buildings improved by the support and intervention of the Office of the Victorian Government Architect. Since it was established in 2006 the OVGA has helped procure everything from the Melbourne Recital Centre to the Melbourne Convention Centre.

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But after the resignation of Liberal premier and architect Ted Baillieu the OVGA lost one of its major supporters. Under the premiership of Denis Napthine the government architect's office was relegated toTransport, Planning and Local Infrastructure from the powerful Department of Premier and Cabinet.

While a shift to planning may seem an appropriate fit for an architect's office, it was perceived as a demotion.

"The moment you go into planning and become just an offshoot downstream of the process, you have to work harder to be listened to," Denton says. "It makes it harder work just at an operation of government level."

Now against a backdrop of divisive planning decisions such as the East West tunnel and Fishermans Bend urban planning academics question how much influence the office still has.

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Victorian Government Architect under threat