The 1.5 acre Low Line Green is a new public green space east of the Floodwall at 17th and Dock streets. (Photo by Kelly Mansfield courtesy Capital Trees)
What once was a barren and forgotten space along the James River and Kanawha Canal has been transformed by native plants. The Low Line Green, phase two of Richmond’s Low Line, completes the linear park.
Inspired by New York City’s High Line, a popular public green space built on top of decommissioned railroad lines, the Low Line sits beneath raised railroad trestles owned by the city of Richmond and CSX Corp. The project was headed by Capital Trees, a nonprofit dedicated to creating public green spaces.
Phase one of the project created the $1.2 million Low Line Gardens, which connect Great Shiplock Park with Richmond’s Canal Walk along part of the Virginia Capital Trail.
Phase two, the Low Line Green, focused on rebuilding and replanting native plants on 1.5 acres east of the Floodwall at 17th and Dock streets.
“In the city of Richmond, we believe that access to green space — public landscapes — has a dramatically beneficial impact on community health and well-being,” says Frazier Millner Armstrong, executive director for Capital Trees.
Keith Whipple, design director of Waterstreet Studio, an environmental landscape architecture and design firm, managed the entire Low Line project, and he says that before the firm began construction, the area was a barren landscape of overgrown weeds.
While the Low Line Green provides beautiful green spaces to the city, along with an outdoor classroom and plaza, it also diverts stormwater runoff from I-95. Armstrong says that before the restoration, the stormwater would run out of gutters and onto hard-packed earth. Now, native plants provide a natural filtration system that helps clean the water before it enters the Kanawha Canal.
According to Armstrong, Capital Trees and its donors invested $2 million in the Low Line project, with the city of Richmond contributing about $300,000.
