Hike the Heights

youarethecity worked with CLIMB (City Live is Moving Bodies) to enhance access and visibility of the beautiful parks in Upper Manhattan and the trail that connects them all -a path that leads you through some of the most beautiful moments where infrastructure meets nature, amazing views and lots of history from Central Park to the Cloisters. To make all this beauty more visible and accessible, we created a map available for download here and developed a concept for “making” the path through walks, art and signage. The project was a collaboration with Aki Ishida and Lynnette Widder and was made possible by DesigNYC.

To generate content for the map, we asked participants of Hike the Heights to tell us what they like about the parks and what they would like to see improved in the form of yellow signs that could be placed directly along the path and were documented using Instagram.

We developed a concept to “make the path” more visible inside the parks using signage, art and events. A family of signs for wayfinding and information responds to different locations. Temporary and permanent art projects can provide visual continuity along the path and celebrate destinations. “Walkshops” and hiking events encourage residents to explore the parks.