Future Nature: Rethinking Public Landscapes as Resilient Systems

Livestream event
Broadcast from the High Line Network Policy Lab

Thomas Rainer is a leading voice in ecological landscape design and co-author of Planting in a Post-Wild World. Thomas challenges traditional approaches to urban green spaces and advocates for dynamic plant systems designed for climate resilience. Drawing on his own work in the field, he’ll share how landscapes like the High Line are moving beyond ornamental gardens to become self-sustaining, adaptive ecosystems that thrive amid environmental stress—transforming our parks and public spaces into vital habitats for a greener future. Thomas will be joined in conversation by Azzurra Cox, a landscape architect and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies how urban green spaces foster collective memory and belonging.

A livestream link will be sent with your confirmation email. Please note this event starts at 6pm EDT.

Future Nature: Rethinking Public Landscapes as Resilient Systems is part of Engaging Nature: Dialogues on Urban Ecology, a four-part virtual public program series that will illuminate the practices and expertise driving the High Line’s contributions to the domains of ecological horticulture, urban biodiversity, and climate resilience.

Through the Engaging Nature: Dialogues on Urban Ecology series, attendees will learn about the often-overlooked connections between plants, humans, wildlife, and the many elements that make up the natural world around us within the built environment of New York City. From best practices for fostering a holistically healthy garden and recent learnings on the vital partnerships between native pollinators and plants that allow them both to thrive, to insights on horticultural resilience in the face of a changing climate and the care and keeping of some of New York City’s most vibrant greenspaces, the Engaging Nature dialogues reveal the role we play within the complex and unseen system of networks that undergirds the urban environment.

October’s event in the series will be livestreamed from the High Line Network’s third annual Policy Lab, a three-day convening for professionals working on public infrastructure reuse projects that will center on practices in urban ecology—exploring approaches to design, programming, and stewardship that reconnect people, nature, and place.

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SUPPORT

Lead support for Horticulture on the High Line is provided by Amanda M. Burden.

Program support is provided by Farvue Foundation, Con Edison, Greenacre Foundation, Christine Knuth, Catie Marron, and Prakash and Anjali Melwani.

Engaging Nature: Dialogues on Urban Ecology, is made possible, in part, with endowment funds from the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation.

Additional support provided by Dana Niblack and Paul Thompson.

The High Line Network is made possible by the founding support of the Freedom Together Foundation.

Program support is provided by The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.

The High Line Network’s 2025 Policy Lab is co-hosted by the High Line along with Network member the Bronx River Alliance.