Paula Scher covers High Line in green dots to encourage social distancing

New York's High Line park has reopened to the public following coronavirus lockdown with 1,000 painted green dots graphic designer Paula Scher created as markers for social distancing.

The High Line reopened on Thursday 19 July over four months after it closed due to the pandemic with a one-way system starting at Gansevoort Street.

Scher, a principal at Pentagram, designed the spots to cover the benches, seats and ground of the public park in repeated intervals to mark safe distances.

Dots on the path, which was created along an elevated railway, are placed in rows that expand as it widens.

"The dots help users judge the way forward and how they should space themselves along the path as it becomes wider and narrower."

Scher has also designed signage with symbols in dots that illustrate three key instructions: stay six-feet apart, wear a mask and move one way.

Additional measures have also been introduced to maintain the safety of users during the coronavirus pandemic.

Previously freely accessible from many entrances, the park now operates one-way starting from Gansevoort Street. Other former entrances are now used as exits points.

"The pattern of circles organises the space and makes the experience of social distancing as easy as possible for visitors, showing them where to walk and stand in line as they wait to enter on Gansevoort," Pentagram added.

Visitors must also obtain free, timed tickets to enter in order to reduce the amount of people in the park – formerly an often packed tourist attraction – and also wear a mask.

The updates to the park joins a number of examples of ways that outdoor spaces have been adapted to meet social distancing requirements following the pandemic.

Brooklyn's Domino Park was similarly updated with white circles to promote social distancing.

Other designs include a gridded system Caret Studio installed inside an Italian piazza and Paul Cocksedge' designed social-distancing picnic blanket.

Scher joined New York graphic design firm Pentagram in 1991, becoming its first female principal.

She has designed graphic identifies for a number of well-known companies and institutions including the system for the New York's Museum of Moden Art, the identity of the New York City Ballet and the logo for Microsoft Windows 8.

In 2000, she created the identity for Friends of the High Line, the organisation behind the park. Her firm Pentagram then developed the signage for the park, which was designed by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and opened its first section in 2009.

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