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The High Line has been a shot in the arm for the West Chelsea area, but it raises some new questions: What does it mean to build sustainably in an area that is proven to be at risk of flooding? Why is our experience so abruptly different when we descend from the green park down to the concrete streetscape? And how do we address the elephant in the room: the looming high-rise (and high-end) residential towers going up at the north end of West Chelsea, spurred by the popularity of the High Line itself? In preparation for the High Line library project, my first task was to analyze the existing zoning and character of the context, which prompted these questions, and provoked some solutions in answer.