The High Line: elevated railroad in Chelsea [Archive] - Page 2

brianac

December 1st, 2008, 07:43 AM

Spotlight

Taking a Stroll Along the High Line

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/30/business/30sqft.xlarge1.jpg Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
Buildings are sprouting up along the span of the High Line in the West Chelsea area of Manhattan. They include the Standard Hotel, above, the Caledonia apartments and the High Line Building, a future office tower.

By AMY CORTESE
Published: November 28, 2008

ON a bright, blustery afternoon in November, construction workers were packing up their gear on the High Line, the park being created atop the old elevated railway in the West Chelsea area of Manhattan (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo), leaving it empty for a few intrepid visitors to tour. Even amid the bitter cold and building materials, it was easy to see why the project has inspired even some of the most jaded New Yorkers.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/11/30/business/30sqft.large2.jpgMarilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
The Caledonia apartments, left, and the High Line Building, a future office tower.

Designed by an architectural team from Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the High Line offers a retreat from street life, a bucolic space floating 30 feet in the air with Hudson River views. Yet it retains many elements of its gritty past: graffiti is prevalent on the buildings it wends through, and some of the rails have been restored in the park. That the park — which grew from an idea hatched 10 years ago into a $170 million project —is being built at all is a marvel.

“When we first started people thought it was crazy,” said Robert Hammond, a co-founder of Friends of the High Line, the community group that pushed for the park.

No longer. The first section of the park will open to the public this spring, but it has already transformed the area near its 22-block stretch near the river, prompting some of the most ambitious development in the city in years.

Condominiums, hotels and office buildings — designed by architectural talent like Jean Nouvel (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/jean_nouvel/index.html?inline=nyt-per), Annabelle Selldorf, Renzo Piano (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/renzo_piano/index.html?inline=nyt-per), and the Della Valle Bernheimer firm — are sprouting along the park’s span, which runs from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street. About 1.5 million square feet of construction is already under way, with an additional 2.5 million square feet in planning stages, according to Robert C. Lieber, the deputy mayor for economic development. All told, that translates into roughly $4 billion in private investment, he said.

A stroll down the High Line, starting at the north end of the first phase, at 20th Street and 10th Avenue, and heading south toward Gansevoort, provides a glimpse of what is to come.

Near the Frank Gehry (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/frank_gehry/index.html?inline=nyt-per) building for IAC/InterActiveCorp (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/iac_interactive_corp/index.html?inline=nyt-org) on 11th Avenue, between 17th and 18th Streets, a 21-story residential tower designed by Mr. Nouvel is rising. Marketing literature promises “the most highly engineered and technologically advanced curtain wall ever constructed in New York City (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/locations/newyork/newyorkcity/manhattan/?inline=nyt-geo),” with a “Mondrian-like window pattern” of nearly 1,700 panes of glass.

East of the park is 520 West Chelsea, a residential building by Ms. Selldorf, combining a glass facade with blue-glazed terra cotta. Keep strolling and you come across the Caledonia, a $350 million residential development by the Related Companies and Taconic Investment Partners that looms over the High Line at West 17th Street. The building contains a mix of 190 condos and 288 rental units, including 56 designated for low-income renters.

Then it’s on to the High Line Building, the 10-story glass office tower by the developer Charles Blaichman and designed by Morris Adjmi that is rising atop the High Line and a former meatpacking plant.

Above Washington Street, André Balazs (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/andre_balazs/index.html?inline=nyt-per)’s highly anticipated Standard Hotel is nearing completion. The 18-story hotel, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, literally straddles the High Line. It is expected to have a soft opening in December with about a third of the 330 rooms open. A restaurant and rooftop pool and lounge won’t open until next February or March.

At the south end of the park, a new branch of the Whitney Museum (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/w/whitney_museum_of_american_art/index.html?inline=nyt-org) designed by Renzo Piano will provide a cultural bookend. The new museum is expected to open in late 2012.

And on that bitterly cold November afternoon, a nattily dressed man and his entourage appeared, heading for the Standard Hotel. It was Mr. Balazs, the developer. He confirmed a December soft opening — “very soft,” he says. When asked how much the hotel’s rooms would cost, he said: “I don’t know. The market is changing so fast.”

That sentiment hints at the discomfort some developers are feeling as their grand plans run up against a deteriorating economy and credit squeeze. Even the High Line district, as it is being called, cannot escape the tightening economic vise.

The developers of the Nouvel tower have run into cost increases and delays; its opening has been pushed back from December to next summer.

And there are no signs of construction yet on a couple of lots near the 18th Street entrance to the High Line, where Edison Properties plans to build two towers designed by the architect Robert A. M. Stern (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/robert_a_m_stern/index.html?inline=nyt-per). Edison did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Still, many condominium buildings have presold their units. Residents have started moving into condos in the Caledonia. Its condos sold out in eight months starting in 2006, at prices from $600,000 to $4 million. And the rental units began being offered in May.

More than 80 percent of the Nouvel building’s condo units have sold, at prices from $2 million to $22 million, said Craig Wood, the developer, including two sales in late September. Despite the difficult environment, his firm, Cape Advisors Inc., refinanced its construction loans in September, he said.

Charles R. Bendit, a co-chief executive of Taconic Investment Partners, said: “We all imagine the High Line will be a phenomenal amenity for the area.”

John H. Alschuler Jr., chairman of HR&A Advisors, a real estate appraisal firm, estimated that proximity to the High Line has added 10 to 15 percent to the value of properties. And New York City officials have predicted that the High Line park will bring the city $900 million in revenue over 30 years.

Even as the first phase is readied for a spring opening, a second phase, from 20th to 30th Street, is expected to be completed in 2010. Mr. Hammond, whose organization will oversee the park in a new role as a conservancy, is taking the long view.

“We’re in this for the long term,” he said, and in an otherwise dismal economy, the High Line “is a real bright spot.”

He added: “It shows that New York can still think big and do big things.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/realestate/commercial/30sqft.html?ref=commercial

Copyright 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

NYC4Life

December 2nd, 2008, 04:14 AM

An incredible transformation from an old dilapidated railroad to an incredible oasis with highrises.

brianac

December 3rd, 2008, 05:49 AM

High Line Supporters Prod Related Over West Side Rail Yards

http://www.observer.com/files/save%20spur%202.jpg

Last night at a forum on the West Side rail yards,

Last night's forum, nominally devoted to zoning text amendments for the eastern half of the rail yards, focused mainly on Related’s potential move to tear down a “spur” off the High Line, the railway viaduct-turned-parkland that runs through the rail yards. The spur runs east from the High Line along 30th Street, crossing 10th Avenue.
Most of the dozens of attendees indicated they supported saving the spur, as did two elected officials in attendance, Representative Jerry Nadler and Assemblyman Dick Gottfried. Related has indicated it is concerned about the size and potential economic impact of the structure. The founders of the High Line effort, Friends of the High Line, are pushing (http://www.observer.com/2008/real-estate/friends-high-line-prod-related-cos-over-rail-yards-mailer) Related hard to retain the spur and to move two planned buildings on the western edge of the site away from the High Line (Related revealed images last night showing that one of those buildings had been moved.)

http://www.observer.com/2008/real-estate/city-probably-taps-van-valkenburgh-west-side-park

© 2008 Observer Media Group,

DarrylStrawberry

January 17th, 2009, 09:42 AM

http://friendsofthehighline.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/800x600.jpg
http://friendsofthehighline.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/1680x1050.jpg

NYatKNIGHT

February 10th, 2009, 04:52 PM

http://thevillager.com/villager.jpg (http://www.thevillager.com/)

February 4 - 10 2009

First section, and new BID, on track for High Line

By Albert Amateau

The Friends of the High Line — established a decade ago to advance the creation of the High Line Park — are getting ready for a gala opening of the park’s first section in less than five months, as construction on the elevated West Side railroad continues.

Robert Hammond, co-founder of the Friends, told members of the Greenwich Village-Chelsea Chamber of Commerce on Wed., Jan. 29, that the group is planning to open the park-in-the-sky between Gansevoort and W. 20th St. by the middle of June.

The long-anticipated event will take place around the same time as the Friends’ annual fundraising meeting, to be held this year at Chelsea Piers on June 15, to celebrate the group’s 10th anniversary, Hammond said.

As part of the celebration, the Friends are planning a June 14 street fair beneath the elevated structure, which was built by the New York Central Railroad between 1929 and 1934 to raise the tracks off the surface of 10th Ave., where trains caused many accidents and fatalities.

“When [Friends co-founder] Josh David and I started to work together in 1999, people said it would never happen,” Hammond recalled. “There was a lot of opposition, including property owners and the city. [Mayor] Rudy Giuliani signed an agreement to demolish it in 2001. Back then, I thought that the only people who cared about the High Line were the Dutch, German and Japanese. But Mike Bloomberg believed it would work, and the city has supported us with about $200 million over the years,” Hammond said.

The city Department of Parks and Recreation is the official owner of the High Line, except for the spur that turns west at 30th St. and goes around the Hudson Yards to 34th St.

The city, nevertheless, has officially recognized the Friends’ participation in the park.

“We are close to signing an agreement with the city giving us a management role in the High Line Park, much like the nonprofit Central Park Conservancy has a management agreement for Central Park, and the Madison Square Conservancy manages the park at Madison Square,” Hammond said.

“That means we will need to raise $3.5 million a year to maintain the park; the city will pay for maintaining the steel structure and for some programs,” Hammond said at the chamber’s luncheon meeting. The event was held at Sergio Bitici’s Macelleria restaurant in the Meatpacking District.

As soon as the park’s Section 1 opens, construction is planned to begin on Section 2 of the High Line, between 20th St. and 30th Sts., Hammond said.

With an eye to the future, the Friends are looking into the creation of a new business improvement district, or BID, for the High Line area, Hammond said.

“It’s in the early planning stages,” he noted. Nevertheless, the Friends hope to do a mass mailing the first week of March to get a reading on property owners’ and merchants’ feeling about a BID.

Hammond anticipates a massive public response at the Section 1 opening.

“One of my concerns for this summer is too many people,” he said.

The Friends are cooperating with business neighbors to lead High Line visitors to shops and attractions in the area to take the pressure off the new park. The Friends are also working with Chelsea neighborhood groups to make sure that the park welcomes everyone in the neighborhood regardless of wealth, Hammond added.

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_301/firstsectionandnew.html

ablarc

February 10th, 2009, 08:15 PM

The Friends are also working with Chelsea neighborhood groups to make sure that the park welcomes everyone in the neighborhood regardless of wealth...
Here's hoping those rich people won't feel left out!

MarkDrake

February 25th, 2009, 04:07 PM

As a former suburbanite, mid-town worker and a New York Central Railroad fanatic I am glad this project has come together. I look forward to my next trip to The City!

Merry

March 21st, 2009, 07:27 AM

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_307/hl.jpg

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_307/hi1.jpg

Photos courtesy Friends of the High Line

Flats of grasses and perennials await planting on the High Line between the reinstalled railroad tracks in the park’s Gansevoort Woodland section.

‘Park in sky’ chugging along toward June opening

By Katie Lorah

In just a few months, the first section of the High Line will open to the public. Section 1 of the park runs through the Meatpacking District and the southernmost blocks of Chelsea, from Gansevoort St. to 20th St. An exact opening date has yet to be set, but is likely to fall in early June. The second section, from 20th St. to 30th St., is projected to open one year later.

To get ready for the High Line’s debut, contractors are now putting the finishing touches on the park’s landscape, in the final stage of the landscape work that began more than a year ago. First, the construction crew installed the High Line’s pathways, made of long, smooth, concrete planks. The planks were designed to taper at their ends to allow the plantings to push up between them, just as grass grew up in the gravel ballast of the original High Line rail bed. Many of the High Line’s original steel railroad tracks have been returned to their locations, integrated into the planting beds. The beds themselves were then prepared, using a layered system much like a typical green roof. Several layers of specialized material — a perforated drainage mat, pea gravel and filter fabric, were installed to aid in soil drainage. Two layers of soil — a coarse subsoil and a nutrient-rich topsoil — were then delivered and spread into the planting beds. At the same time, lighting, irrigation and rodent-proofing systems were installed.

Last fall, a team of landscape specialists began working to bring the High Line’s planting beds to life, as envisioned by planting designer Piet Oudolf. Since then, the one-of-a-kind landscape has taken shape block by block. With the help of landscape contracting company Siteworks, the Section 1 environment of hardy perennials, textural grasses, shrubs and trees has taken root on the High Line. There are roughly 210 different plant species in the beds of Section 1, ranging from a meadow-like mix of asters, goldenrod and big bluestem grass in the low beds of the Sundeck, to a grove of gray birch and serviceberry trees as part of the Gansevoort Woodland.

Besides the planting work, several of the High Line’s special design features are nearing completion. The monumental “Slow Stairs” are now in place at the future High Line access point at Gansevoort St. This blocklong staircase rises from street level, underneath the High Line, to cut through the steel of the structure itself. Visitors will ascend along the staircase, coming face to face with the High Line’s heavy steel girders and hand-driven rivets, before emerging into the wild landscape above. With the adjacent site being planned as the new Whitney Museum, the southern terminus of the High Line is set to become one of the city’s liveliest new public spaces.

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_307/hi2.jpg

From above left, workers install foliage in between the High Line’s pathways; trees, with root balls wrapped in burlap, that will be planted in the park’s Gansevoort Woodland section; the newly installed, blocklong “Slow Stairs,” part of the Gansevoort St. access point, will bring visitors up through the structure itself.

At 17th St., large window-like cutouts were recently made in the steel of the High Line’s Tenth Avenue Square, one of Section 1’s most unique design features. Soon, glass will be installed, providing High Line visitors with a view up Tenth Ave., and a peek into the park to those walking below. Amphitheater-like seating, doubling as a ramp and staircase, will allow High Line visitors to drop down into the steel structure of the Square. In the coming weeks, work on the High Line’s access points, planting beds, pathways and seating will be completed.

While two-thirds of the High Line is owned by the city and is currently under construction to become a park, the future of the northernmost section, around the West Side Rail Yards, remains undecided. There is still a chance that this section could be partially or fully demolished, depending on a planning process now taking place between the city, the New York State-run M.T.A. and The Related Companies, the private developer leasing the site. The 26-acre rail yards site is the largest developable plot of land in Manhattan, and the current scheme calls for more than 12 million square feet of commercial and residential development, along with several acres of public open space.

Friends of the High Line, along with Community Board 4 and many elected officials, is advocating for the full preservation of the entire High Line at the rail yards, and its integration into the site. Friends of the High Line is encouraging the city to take ownership of this section of the High Line, much like it did with the rest of the High Line in 2005. To find out more about the High Line at the rail yards, and to learn how you can help save the entire High Line, please visit www.thehighline.org (http://www.thehighline.org).

The opening of the first section of the High Line will be celebrated in June with a street festival, put on by Friends of the High Line. The festival will also celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of Friends of the High Line, and the 75th anniversary of the High Line itself. (It was completed in 1934 to lift dangerous freight trains off the city’s streets.) There will be a variety of free public programming, both on and off the High Line, during the park’s inaugural summer.

More information about what’s planned for the opening season will be announced through Friends of the High Line’s e-mail newsletter. You can sign up to receive updates and information on how you can get involved at www.thehighline.org (http://www.thehighline.org). You can also read the latest construction updates and announcements on the High Line Blog, www.thehighline.org/blog (http://www.thehighline.org/blog).

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_307/parkinsky.html

ablarc

March 21st, 2009, 11:00 AM

What time will it close in the evening?

ZippyTheChimp

March 21st, 2009, 12:14 PM

^
Info from Oct 2007:
What hours will the High Line be open?
Most City parks close at 1 AM, and the High Line will most likely be closed overnight as well. The exact hours of operation are still being evaluated, and the City intends to take into account the level of nighttime activity in each of the areas surrounding the High Line.

Will dogs be allowed?
While a final decision on this issue has not yet been reached, Friends of the High Line's hope is to make the vibrant community of responsible dog-owners part of the larger constituency of High Line users. That said, the design of the park, which has a blurred boundary between walkways and plantings, presents some challenges in this regard. We believe that a set of rules, specific to the High Line, must be formed to ensure that dogs do not unduly stress the health of the plantings. Friends of the High Line is also exploring education and outreach to dog owners around opening to ensure responsible oversight by dog owners.

Will there be public restrooms?
Yes. There will be public restrooms in two locations in Section 1, at 16th Street and in the future at Gansevoort Street, at the Whitney Museum site. Locations for public restrooms in Section 2 have not yet been identified.

Can you bike or rollerblade on the High Line or is it pedestrian only?
Due to community input and to the narrow width of the High Line, we have decided to make the High Line a space marked by slow uses, with pathways meant for walking slowly, relaxing, and gathering with friends to enjoy the views and relative quiet that the High Line provides. Thus, bikes and rollerblades will not be allowed. However, efforts will be made to plan for people biking to the High Line – there will be bike racks at major entrances, for example.

brianac

April 2nd, 2009, 07:24 PM

Activists Pressure Pols on Northern Turn of the High Line; It's in Related's Rail Yards (http://www.observer.com/2009/real-estate/activists-pressure-pols-northern-turn-high-line-its-relateds-rail-yards)

By Reid Pillifant
April 2, 2009 | 10:32 a.m.

While the bushes are blooming on the soon-to-be-opened southern section of the High Line, a battle is blossoming at City Hall over the fate of the line’s northern section. The battle spawned a rally earlier this week, as activists on behalf of the park continue to demand public supervision of the line's northern spur.

On Tuesday morning, about 70 supporters of the High Line Park donned bright red “Save the High Line” t-shirts and crammed into a small committee room on the 16th floor of 250 Broadway.

Technically, the hearing before the City Council’s Zoning and Franchises subcommittee was unrelated to the High Line – it concerned two zoning amendments to the adjoining rail yards being developed by the Related Companies that don’t directly affect the elevated park – but that didn’t stop Friends of the High Line from declaring it “the most important public hearing since 2005.”

“The whole of the High Line at the rail yards is not guaranteed,” testified Robert Hammond, co-founder of Friends of the High Line. Mr. Hammond hoped the sea of red shirts would help convince the city to take control of the section that crosses through the rail yards. “City acquisition of the High Line would be the first step toward preservation of the structure."

The northern section was not transferred to the Parks Department in 2005, along with the rest of the line, because, at the time, the M.T.A. and the city were still unsure of their plans for the rail yards. The line’s current owner, CSX, appears willing to donate the remaining section of the High Line to the city at no cost, just as did with the preceding sections, but the city has yet to take up the offer. (Map of the High Line here in a PDF (http://www.thehighline.org/images/maps/map_standard.pdf), showing its slice through the yards.)

The yards’ developer, the Related Companies, says it has included the High Line in its plans, and that it remains committed to preserving the northern spur as a public park. But Mr. Hammond would like to see the city take possession regardless as part of the land-use review process for the yards slated to start this summer.

“It would just make us feel more comfortable for the city to be in control, and for the ultimate decision about the High Line to rest with the city, and not with a developer,” Mr. Hammond said after the meeting.

The city appears unwilling, at least for now, to publicly force Related into accepting the park. The High Line is just one of myriad issues to be settled in the re-zoning process of the western half of the rail yards, and some suspect Related would like to avoid a public guarantee in order to use the potential park as a bargaining chip for other deals, such as the amount of affordable housing or the inclusion of a school on the site.

The meeting was moved to 250 Broadway after the Council Committee Room inside City Hall was closed for emergency structural repairs on Friday, and the cramped venue mitigated the High Line’s ability to show off all of its red-shirted supporters. About half were shuttled down the hall to a cafeteria for what turned out to be a two-hour wait before the rail yards amendments came before the committee, and many had left before chairman Tony Avella ushered in the standing-room only crowd.

Mr. Hammond of Friends of the High Line still considered the rally a success. “For people to come down and wait in two lines and then get up there to testify, I think there was a lot of heartfelt support that came across.”

http://www.observer.com/2009/real-estate/activists-pressure-pols-northern-turn-high-line-its-relateds-rail-yards

Copyright The New York Observer

ZippyTheChimp

April 2nd, 2009, 09:04 PM

Cutouts for glass panels at 10th Ave & 17th St.

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1757/highline23c.th.jpg (http://img24.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline23c.jpg) http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3596/highline22c.th.jpg (http://img24.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline22c.jpg)

meesalikeu

April 28th, 2009, 09:56 PM

here's a full south to north highline tour thread i did in august '07:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,13691.0.html

brianac

May 12th, 2009, 05:45 PM

High Line Construction Chronicles: Stairway to Heaven (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/05/12/high_line_construction_chronicles_stairway_to_heav en.php)

http://curbed.com/uploads/2009_5_highlinestairs.jpg

The first section of the High Line is scheduled to open next month(!), and because what goes up must eventually come down, a tipster relays the above shot of a staircase being added at the park's current northern terminus at 20th Street and Tenth Avenue. In a bit of a throwback, it looks like the High Line people have decided to go with an Erector Set for the building of the stairs. Greeters (http://blog.thehighline.org/2009/05/04/apply-now-to-become-a-high-line-greeter/), don't forget to casually repeat that little fact to any acrophobic visitors.

· High Line Construction Chronicles (http://curbed.com/tags/high-line-construction-chronicles) [Curbed]

http://curbed.com/

MidtownGuy

May 12th, 2009, 06:24 PM

I hope they will have several cafés/places for refreshment along the high line.
Very happy and excited for this to open.

meesalikeu

May 26th, 2009, 10:59 PM

from amny:

High Line park coming on line, facing uncertain economy

http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/9%2520%252D%2520wildflower%2520field.JPG
Design by Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Courtesy of the city of New York
By Jason Fink (jfink@am-ny.com)
Even as the flatlining economy silences construction projects, one of the city’s most unusual and ambitious new developments is set to open next month: The High Line park.
Conceived in flusher times, the park — and its financial patron, the non-profit Friends of the High Line — will face the immediate challenge of raising millions of dollars for upkeep during the worst recession the city has faced in decades.
“It’s definitely difficult,” said Robert Hammond, co-founder of the Friends of the High Line. “(But) Central Park was opened in an economic tough time and has weathered many storms.”
The mile-and-a-half long park, built on a defunct elevated railroad line that cuts the center of the block between 10th and 11th avenues from 34th Street to Gansevoort, is a floating pathway of wild flowers and grass. It’s opening will be the culmination of one of the most pitched battles in the city’s recent land use wars.

“I hope New Yorkers really love it,” said Hammond, whose group fought efforts to tear down the freight tracks during the Giuliani administration.
After several delays, the southern half of the park will open in June. Neither the city nor the Friends will give an opening date, and there is no precise timetable for when the second phase, from 20th to 30th streets, will be ready, though it is expected by next summer. The plan is for the park to feed into the planned Hudson Yards residential community.
Since the final zoning was approved in 2005, 31 development projects have been planned or completed along the high line, according to the city Planning Department, including a satellite of the Whitney Museum, now under construction, and the luxury Standard Hotel, which opened earlier this year.
“It’s a fabulous thing for the neighborhood,” said Ralf Kvettel, manager of the Trestle on Tenth, at 24th Street, a restaurant that changed its name to capitalize on the High Line. “Tenth Avenue on a Sunday evening is a wasteland here and this will bring people in.”
The $170 million construction cost for the park has been taken of, with the city putting up $98 million, the federal government committing $22 million and the Friends of the High Line and others footing the rest of the bill.
However, the city will have to come up with 30 percent of the park’s annual $2 million to $3 million operating budget. And the Friends, which will oversee the 6.7-acre open space, is responsible for the remaining portion.
Hammond would not specify how much his group has already raised but said that they are aggressively working to secure next year’s budget through membership dues and other donations.
If the similarly membership-based Central Park Conservancy is any indication, the Friends could face a drop off in fundraising in 2010 because of the economy.
“(Donors) are meeting their commitments right now but next year they’ve let us know it’s going to be different,” said Douglas Blonksy, president of the conservancy, which is already looking at a 5 to 10 percent dip in revenue this year.

The park will have entrances spaced every two blocks but will offer little in the way of amenities.
Concrete planks will be surrounded by vegetation meant to evoke the natural growth that took over before the train tracks were restored and new drainage put in. There may eventually be food concessions but there will be no dogs, bicycles or rollerblading allowed.
“It’s about meandering,” said City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden. “There is nothing like this anywhere in the city.”
Paris has a similar park, the Promenade Plantee, which was also built on an old freight line and is popular with residents and tourists.
While many local business owners and residents say the park will be a boon to south Chelsea and the Meatpacking district, others fear eventually being priced out of the neighborhood.
“It could definitely be a draw, a destination” said Tony Cloer, 43, who lives in the Caledonia at 17th Street, a new condo building which touts its access to the High Line as a selling point.
But for Brian Freeman, 41, of Chelsea, the High Line, in combination with the galleries that have sprouted up in recent years, has only made the area more expensive by speeding up gentrification.
“Not everyone will be able to afford the types of businesses it helps,” he said.

Merry

May 30th, 2009, 04:23 AM

High Line park-in-the-sky chugs toward finish line

http://www.chelseanow.com/cn_128/brig.jpg
The High Line’s 10th Ave. Square section at 17th St., where an observation deck is under construction.

By Patrick Hedlund

A decade-long local effort to transform a derelict former railway into a public park-in-the-sky will finally be realized next month with the debut of the High Line’s first section in Chelsea.

“To me the most rewarding thing is bringing somebody up there to show it to them for the first time,” said Joshua David, who conceived of the idea with fellow park founder Robert Hammond back in 1999. “I’ve seen it from step to step, but to see it through their eyes—and see how struck they are by it—is how I can feel that incredible sensation.”

The High Line is projected to open sometime in the first two weeks of June, giving park-goers access to the elevated structure’s initial section from Gansevoort to 20th Sts. Early risers and night crawlers will delight in the High Line’s daily operating hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and jaunts down the winding walkway will yield sweeping views of the Hudson River and Manhattan skyline.

Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit organization co-founded by David and Hammond to oversee construction of the park, recently hired Patrick Cullina as its vice president of maintenance and operations after his four-year stint as VP of horticulture at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Along with managing the High Line’s myriad plantings, Cullina is tasked with ensuring a quality experience for the throngs of visitors likely to crowd the West Chelsea green space during the warmer months.

“Any successful garden is one where the decisions are formed by your experience,” Cullina said, explaining that the park’s landscape will evolve as the plantings mature, helping to dictate future decisions on the High Line. “Each season has its lesson to teach, and we’re going to gather those lessons as we go.”

While the project will benefit from its partnership with the city Parks Department, which will provide some enforcement staff at the park, nearly all the labor required to maintain the High Line on a daily basis will fall on the Friends. Depending on the season, a staff of about 15 to 20—including gardeners, groundskeepers, custodians and mechanical maintainers—will tend to the park and its infrastructure, while volunteer “greeters” will help answer visitors’ questions about its features.

One challenge for horticulturalists will be balancing the park’s multiple plant varieties atop the former viaduct, which is “essentially the city’s largest green roof,” Cullina said. Shallow soil depths, sunlight and wind exposure will all affect the High Line’s “microclimates,” he added, which “change literally from block to block.”

“A lot of this will have to unfold over time,” Cullina acknowledged. “Our ultimate aspiration is to have a consistently compelling landscape. It progresses from the time you enter to the time you exit.”

But park-goers will have to contend with “a very different kind of public landscape environment than anything anyone’s ever experienced,” Cullina said, referring to the sometimes-dubious delineations between the High Line’s pathways and green spaces.

“There aren’t these really clear-cut definitions of where the plants are,” he noted. “Over time the plantings will become so dense and thick that it will become clear.”

All in all, the park will provide a study in transition as the flowers, shrubs and trees mature through the months. “You see it once,” Cullina said, “that’s not the end of the show.”

Aside from its organic growth, the High Line’s appearance will be also enhanced by a “subdued lighting that goes the whole length of the line at night,” as well as daily cleaning by staff, Cullina added.

Both bicycles and pets are prohibited at the park, but bike racks will be available at the entrances. Residential buildings near the former railway will not enjoy private access points to the High Line, which will have “no connectivity unless it serves the public first and foremost,” David said.

Ironically, the park’s popularity as a public realm could create problems, as initial overcrowding is a chief concern of the Friends.

“We want everybody to come to the High Line,” David said, acknowledging that the hype surrounding the project has grown to near-mythic proportions. “But we don’t encourage everybody to come the very minute it opens. It’ll be beautiful on day two and day three, on week two and week three.”

However, the High Line’s biggest challenge will be the park’s ability to grow some green—and David isn’t talking plantings.

“Friends of the High Line’s budget basically doubles when the ribbon cuts,” he explained, noting that the opening comes at a time when most nonprofits are slashing budgets. “Our biggest challenge is taking all the excitement that’s out there about the High Line and making sure that people understand we still need people’s support.”

Cullina views the undertaking not only as a singular achievement for New York City, but an idea to build upon for future urban planning.

“As much impact as this project will have, [the Friends’] example and partnership with city will also be something that people will look it,” he said. “It’s always inspiring to see the reaction of folks. It’s sort of a vehicle for excitement, and I think that’s great.”

http://www.chelseanow.com/cn_128/highline.html

lofter1

June 1st, 2009, 08:26 PM

A couple of local angels who love the High Line continue to put their money where their mouths are ...

$10 Million Gift for High Line Project

NY TIMES (http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/10-million-gift-for-high-line-project/)
By ROBIN POGREBIN
JUNE 1, 2009

Design by Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Courtesy of the City of New York. The High Line, a defunct railway that runs above Manhattan, is being transformed into a public park.

The media mogul Barry Diller and the fashion designer Diane Von Furstenberg have made a $10 million challenge grant to the High Line, the former elevated railway along the Hudson River that is being converted into a landscaped walkway. “I fell in love with the project, with the place,” Ms. Von Furstenberg said in a telephone interview. “It’s a beautiful green ribbon that will travel from Gansevoort to the Javits Center.”

The donation ranks among the four largest ever given by individuals to New York City parks, said the parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe. “There’s something about New York and parks that brings out extraordinary generosity,” he said.

The gift, which was to be announced at an event on the High Line on Monday night, brings the fundraising to $34 million in a $50 million capital campaign. It will be allotted in $2 million annual increments over five years with Friends of the High Line, a nonprofit group that manages the project, required to match each installment.

The first phase of the High Line, which runs from Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district to 20th Street, is due to open some time this month. The meandering path 30 feet above the street — with plantings and water areas designed by Field Operations, a landscape architecture company, and Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the architectural firm — will ultimately extend all the way to 34th Street.

Under an operating agreement modeled on the Central Park Conservancy’s and signed last week, the Friends of the High Line will cover operating costs, which are expected to be $2 million to $4 million a year. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation will provide security.

This marks the second major donation to the High Line from Mr. Diller and Ms. Von Furstenberg, who provided a $5 million gift in 2005. Both have offices near the High Line, Ms. Von Furstenberg on 14th Street and Mr. Diller’s IAC headquarters at 18th Street. “They were involved in supporting the High Line from the beginning,” said Joshua David, a co-founder of Friends of the High Line.

The total cost of the walkway’s first section is $86.2 million, Mr. David said, and the second phase — which extends to 30th Street — is expected to cost $66 million. The budget for the third section, which wraps around Hudson Yards, has yet to be determined.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

ZippyTheChimp

June 2nd, 2009, 10:32 AM

The glass is installed at 10th Ave

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/4821/highline24c.th.jpg (http://img36.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline24c.jpg) http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/782/highline25c.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline25c.jpg)

14th St

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/7675/highline26c.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline26c.jpg)

Washington St
In the background, demolition continues at 820 Washington for the Whitney Museum annex.

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/9742/highline27c.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline27c.jpg) http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/7375/highline28c.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline28c.jpg) http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/959/highline29c.th.jpg (http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline29c.jpg) http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5751/highline30c.th.jpg (http://img30.imageshack.us/my.php?image=highline30c.jpg)

scumonkey

June 2nd, 2009, 11:49 AM

I can't believe the High line will close each night at 10:00 pm :(

Edward

June 4th, 2009, 08:51 PM

From Friends of the High Line email:

Section 1 of the High Line to Open Tuesday, June 9

After ten years of advocacy, planning, and construction, the High Line is opening. Section 1 of the High Line (from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street) will open Tuesday, June 9, offering visitors the chance to preview the park, which is still under construction. Friends of the High Line thanks all the community partners, donors, volunteers, members, elected officials, and other supporters who've made this historic day possible.

Please note that access to the High Line will be limited during June. To ensure public safety during the first days and weeks that the High Line is open, visitors on the High Line will flow from south to north. Please plan on entering the park at the Gansevoort Street access point, unless you are in need of an elevator. Elevator service is available at 16th Street, with another elevator opening in July at 14th Street. You may exit the park at any of the access points (Gansevoort, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th Streets).

The High Line as a whole is still a construction site: Section 2, from 20th Street to 30th Street, is just entering its landscape construction phase. We ask that all visitors in this inaugural season observe a few guidelines, so the park can be enjoyed by all.
High Line Hours and Rules

The High Line will be open daily from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM. We encourage you, if possible, to visit the High Line at times of anticipated slower use, such as early mornings and weekdays.

Regular New York City Parks rules apply for the High Line. Because of space limitations on the High Line, and the fragility of the new park landscape, we need your help. Please stay on the pathways and keep off the gravel. Though the gravel looks like a walking surface, walking on it will damage the new plants. Dogs are currently not allowed on the High Line due to the limited area of the pathways and the fragility of the new plantings.

Visit our Web site (http://www.thehighline.org/about/park-information) for a complete list of park rules.

stache

June 4th, 2009, 11:01 PM

Maybe I've said this before, the pathways look too narrow.

lofter1

June 5th, 2009, 01:29 AM

The elevated platform itself is narrow -- it only carried two sets of tracks. What they've created is perfect for strolling an ambling about.

Baby carriages might create a log jam (they're to be allowed although no other non-essential wheeled vehicles -- bikes, skateboards, rollerskates. blades -- will be). And no doggies or other pets can be brought up.

I was up there late today ... it's really great (especially when the workers have cleared out and there's hardly anybody up there). The plantings (most less than a year old) are really doing well. In two to three years it will be fantastic. The design really allows the plants to go wild and overtake the space.

However, it's going to take a lot of interaction between the HL folks and visitors to make sure that things don't get trampled. People are just naturally going to want to walk everywhere and do the old balancing-on-the-train-tracks-trick-but-oops-I-just -fell-off! The flora growing between the tracks just won't take the punishment.

stache

June 5th, 2009, 06:25 AM

That's what I mean. Did they make this for the plants or the people?

lofter1

June 5th, 2009, 11:30 AM

Both. The inspiration for the HL was the fact that plants had overtaken the rail lines and that people should be able to see and experience that, rather than tear it down.

It's not a typical park by any means. And there was no feasible way (for numerous reasons, from city codes to plant sustainability) to let it remain in in its raw state.

ZippyTheChimp

June 5th, 2009, 11:54 AM

As depicted in renderings, the feel of the High Line is isolation, a trailway through industrial artifact.

Big crowds might ruin the experience. Time will tell, but I think it may turn out to be a weekday early morning park.

philvia

June 6th, 2009, 04:03 AM

i was enthusiastic about this at first... but now i cant say that i agree with anything they've done.

should have been open to its neighbors with restaurants and cafes. banning dogs are bikes are both retarded (i assume we're expected to leave the bikes chained on the street?) having a wristband welding 1700 person limit with a "flow" of north to south is retarded as well.

this isn't a public park, it's an attraction. i wonder why they dont go ahead and charge a $7 entrance fee?

stache

June 6th, 2009, 04:36 AM

I'm withholding judgment but I was looking forward to this as being a way people could walk within the area and avoid cars. The whole thing is starting to sound too precious.

Derek2k3

June 6th, 2009, 08:49 AM

I walked the stretch yesterday and the best part about it was the peace. Once it officially opens I don't think that will hold. There was a kind of I am Legend feel to it in the rain; you can't even hear the car traffic below.

ZippyTheChimp

June 6th, 2009, 09:10 AM

banning dogs are bikes are both retarded (i assume we're expected to leave the bikes chained on the street?)Do you think there's room on a two-track rail line for bikes and dogs?

Just because you have them doesn't mean you have to take them everywhere.

lofter1

June 6th, 2009, 11:01 AM

IMHO people that can't abide by a few minor restrictions which are being put in effect to the benefit of all for years to come should avoid the High Line.

ZippyTheChimp

June 6th, 2009, 11:14 AM

I don't know if it's planned, but there's space at the end-point for a bike-rack.

I suppose you can't ban strollers, but some people think you can take them anywhere. Like those giant things wheeled onto the subway, with shelves and saddle bags (George Carlin's "stuff" comes to mind). The only thing missing is back-up lights.

philvia

June 6th, 2009, 12:28 PM

Do you think there's room on a two-track rail line for bikes and dogs?

Just because you have them doesn't mean you have to take them everywhere.

well considering they promoted this as a public park, and i'm sure they knew how many people this would attract, they shouldn't have built the damn walkway 3 feet wide.

it has a museum quality.. "look but don't touch"

also curious, how did you guys get up there before opening? :)

lofter1

June 6th, 2009, 12:47 PM

Just helping out with getting the HL operational. Almost anybody can do it if you offer yourself up (http://www.thehighline.org/get-involved/volunteer).

"Look but don't touch" is pretty much the way things go for just about every public park there is in regards to flowers and plants and wildlife, and that applies across the board from National Parks to City Parks. But this one is unique form those in many ways. Besides, the HL has always been promoted as a "passive park" -- there's lots of opportunites for more interactive experiences just across the Hiway in HRP and up the road at Chelsea Park.

It's a delicate balance up there to keep roots strong and plants nourished and thriving. Keeping little kids from going too crazy will be a challenge.

Where the walkways are narrow there are usually 2-3 parallel paths with plantings in between and at the edges. Think of someplace like the Ramble where the paths are narrow (but without the option to criss cross through the woods). In other areas the paths widen out to the full width. There are also completely plant-free areas, most notably just south of 14th Street where the HL passes beneath the HL Building and all of a sudden one enters into a completely non-park like / interior urban zone. And then a couple of minutes later you're back in the park.

I've not yet seen it by night, but imagine that will be a great time to experience it.

Edward

June 6th, 2009, 01:02 PM

I was up there late today ...
Were you ON High Line or just near? I thought it opens on Tuesday?

Edward

June 6th, 2009, 01:03 PM

Anyone knows whether they are going to allow tripods for photography on the High Line?

philvia

June 6th, 2009, 01:13 PM

Anyone knows whether they are going to allow tripods for photography on the High Line?

as long as you dont use flash. the bright light may interfere with the plant's delicate photosynthesis process. :rolleyes:

ZippyTheChimp

June 6th, 2009, 01:50 PM

Anyone knows whether they are going to allow tripods for photography on the High Line?The "relaxed" rule that's been in effect for at least a year allows the use of a tripod on a sidewalk or in a park "as long as it doesn't interfere with pedestrian traffic."

That's an interpretation, so maybe Lofter can answer how it would apply on the High Line.

My guess is no.

You're allowed to use a tripod on the grounds of the zoo and botanical gardens, but not indoors. I was told at the NYBG that their restriction was simply a matter of safety.

stache

June 6th, 2009, 07:25 PM

LOL philvia! :p :p :p

lofter1

June 7th, 2009, 09:54 AM

Were you ON High Line or just near? I thought it opens on Tuesday?

I was up there about a week ago and then again on Firday.

Indeed it will be officially opened for public access on Tuesday.

Edward

June 7th, 2009, 11:52 PM

The High Line viewed this Saturday from the 3rd floor terrace of the Standard Hotel.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3359/3605325345_fd637c8921.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudentas/3605325345/)

stache

June 8th, 2009, 04:59 AM

You think they could at least spring for a mural on that wall...

meesalikeu

June 8th, 2009, 04:49 PM

the highline is definately open today...right now...a day early.

i just got back from walking around on it. or should i say i promanaded amongst les plantees in honor of the paris highline park that inspired it?

pics to come.

stunning!

meesalikeu

June 8th, 2009, 04:54 PM

You think they could at least spring for a mural on that wall...

be careful about what you wish for you might get it -- while i was up there just a bit ago they were wrapping a pepsi banner ad around the building just to the left on that pic (the roof stairwell of the warehouse where the controversial new tower is proposed). ugh. i hope it doesn't become 'banner ad city' all around up there, but it might as i don't see there is anything that can be done about it.

ps edward -- people had tripods. i got a press pack and it doesn't address that so i guess its ok. no bikes of course, but the local wealthy yunnie moms+nannys with the suburban double-wide strollers were up there too. if anything that's gonna be the problem.

Edward

June 8th, 2009, 06:20 PM

Live webcam at http://www.standardhotels.com/new-york-city/

MidtownGuy

June 8th, 2009, 06:41 PM

moms+nannys with the suburban double-wide strollers were up there too. if anything that's gonna be the problem.
:Doh man, those things should require a special driver's license! I think those double wide strollers are the culprits behind more sidewalk traffic jams than anything else.

Edward

June 8th, 2009, 07:07 PM

Join me on Wednesday for the High Line Photo Meetup (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21360).

stache

June 9th, 2009, 08:41 AM

:Doh man, those things should require a special driver's license!

...and a parade permit - ;)

NYatKNIGHT

June 9th, 2009, 12:42 PM

After all these years it is unbelievably satisfying to finally walk the new park. They did a fantastic job with the plants and lighting, and the views are wonderful day and night. Interactive Corp. at night looks amazing from there. Agreed, as was said, once the crowds die down and the plants grow in it will be even better. Plus they haven't actually finished all of this segment as there are still a few remnants to be constructed in the area near 16th-17th Streets where it breaks into two levels.

I share everyone's gripe about the double-wide power twin Humvee super strollers with anti-lock brakes and rack-and-pinion steering. Mostly it's because the parent operating it expects people to dive out of the way as they are plowing through.

meesalikeu

June 9th, 2009, 02:38 PM

hold on to your fedora's, as promised, all the goods from yesterday...

very exciting news -- the high line park is now open to one and all!

these shots are from yesterday's High Line Park advance media day 6/8/09.
it wasn't too formal, i got an email about it and i just walked up no problem.
Lucky i did as it's very rainy today, the park's official public opening day.

info from the press packet:

Location: West Side of Manhattan
Section I: Gansevoort St to w20th St (Now Open)
Section II: w20th St to 30th St (opens 2010)
Section III: West Side Rail Yards (Not Yet Secured)

Size
Section I: 2.7 Acres, 9 Blocks, 0.5 mile
Section II: 2.14 Acres, 10 Blocks, 0.5 mile
Section III: 2.15 Acres, 0.45 mile
Total: 7.08 Acres, 22 Blocks, 1.45 mile

Design Team 2004-2009
Design Lead/Landscape Architecture/Urban Design: James Corner Field Operations
Architecture: Diller, Scofidio + Renfro
Plantings: Piet Ouldolf
Structural/MEP Engineering: Buro Happold
Structural Engineering/Historic Preservation: Robert Silman Associates
Lighting: L'Observatorie International
Signage: Pentagram Design, Inc
Artwork: Spencer Tunik
Operations: Friends of the Highline, a 501(c)(3) non-profit,
Provides 70% of the operating budget under license
Agreement w/NYC Dept. of Parks & Recreation

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smuncky

June 9th, 2009, 02:54 PM

wonderful! thanks for the photos!!

lofter1

June 9th, 2009, 04:59 PM

More photographers up there than you can shake a stick at :D .

Undoubtedly soon to become the single most photographed spot (rated by photos per photgrapher) in NYC.

NYatKNIGHT

June 9th, 2009, 05:09 PM

It is incredibly photogenic up there, seemingly every step in every direction. Then it gets dark, the lights come on, and it's a whole new world of photography.

ablarc

June 9th, 2009, 05:31 PM

After the ladies tire 0f it, the gents will move in. Can you think of a single solitary better place to be a drug dealer (or buyer)?

NYatKNIGHT

June 9th, 2009, 05:41 PM

Yes, almost anywhere else. There are security cameras.

Gulcrapek

June 9th, 2009, 05:58 PM

meesa, wouldn't the structural engineer be Robert Silman Associates?

meesalikeu

June 9th, 2009, 06:07 PM

i don't think a single person who has went up there hasn't taken a photo or three. i would defy anyone not to, the views are incredible -- it's the lays potato chips of city parks.

***

btw there will be no shenanigans up there at least for awhile. its crawling with cameras, call boxes, volunteer hosts, cops and park workers, not to mention crowds. maybe the cops are all just up getting a handle on it for now and will soon disappear? we'll see. still, if trouble starts happening they'll just close up the park earlier every day.

***

folks, hint, hint we're waiting on some night shots.....

lofter1

June 9th, 2009, 06:13 PM

meesalikeu

June 9th, 2009, 06:14 PM

meesa, wouldn't the structural engineer be Robert Silman Associates?

correct. it's silman not silverman.

sorry if that's you :D

meesalikeu

June 9th, 2009, 06:18 PM

One name left off the "they did it" list : James Corner Field Operations (http://www.fieldoperations.net/) was equally responsible for the design in collaboration with DS+R, and also did project management, collaboration & construction administration.

yes. it's listed like this:

design lead/landscape architecture/urban design: james corner field operations

i'll add it.

scumonkey

June 9th, 2009, 08:02 PM

folks, hint, hint we're waiting on some night shots.....
Curbed had posted many night shots today...but they have mysteriously disappeared?

meesalikeu

June 9th, 2009, 09:19 PM

oh i'm sure high line park nightshots are out there somewhere....just not here. yet.

lofter1

June 9th, 2009, 09:21 PM

Hacked by a Related fan?

Friends of the High Line need more friends Tomorrow Night to help save the northern stretch of tracks that run above 30th Street -- which could be jeopardized by the Related plan for Hudson Yards:

Dear Friends,

It's been truly amazing these past 2 days to watch people visit the High Line for the first time -- but we need your help again, tomorrow night, to make sure the entire High Line at the rail yards is preserved.

Tomorrow night’s Community Board 4 public forum on the Western Rail Yards will be an important opportunity to show the City, MTA, and the Related Companies how much support there is for the High Line's preservation.

Read background on the hearing (http://www.thehighline.org/about/rail-yards/june-10).

If you have a red "Save the High Line at the Rail Yards" T-Shirt, please wear it. We have a few more for those who come early.

RSVP to >> railyards@thehighline.org

And let us know if you would like to speak in favor of the High Line's preservation.

Wednesday, June 10
6:30 - 8:30 PM
Sign-in begins at 6:00
Fulton Center Auditorium
119 Ninth Avenue, between 17th and 18th Streets

We hope to see you there!

Best,

Josh and Robert

lofter1

June 10th, 2009, 09:48 AM

On High, a Fresh Outlook

New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/arts/design/10high.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion)
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
June 10, 2009

ARCHITECTURE REVIEW

... one of the most thoughtful, sensitively designed public spaces built in New York in years ...

Slide Show (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/09/arts/20090609_HIGHLINE_SLIDESHOW_index.html): A Public Space, Elevated

Slide Show (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/09/arts/20090609_HIGH_SLIDESHOW_index.html): Walking the Line

I keep picturing Carrie Bradshaw on the High Line, and it terrifies me.

Ever since it was unveiled in 2005, the design for this park, conceived for a strip of elevated rail tracks abandoned nearly 30 years ago, has been the favorite cause of New York’s rich and powerful. Celebrities attended fund-raisers on its deck. City officials endorsed it. Developers salivated over it, knowing it would raise land values.

I worried that it would one day be overrun with tourists and film crews. I imagined turning on the television to see Carrie stumbling down its promenade with a broken heel, weeping over Mr. Big. How, I wondered, could it possibly retain the tranquillity that made walking along its rusting, decrepit deck such a haunting experience? So I was overjoyed this weekend when I climbed the stairs at Gansevoort Street, entered the new city park and felt an immediate sense of calm. Designed by James Corner Field Operations with Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the first phase of the High Line, which opened on Tuesday, is a series of low scruffy gardens, punctuated by a fountain and a few quiet lounge areas, that unfold in a lyrical narrative and seem to float above the noise and congestion below. It is one of the most thoughtful, sensitively designed public spaces built in New York in years.

But what’s really unexpected about the park is the degree to which it alters your perspective on the city. Guiding you through a secret landscape of derelict buildings, narrow urban canyons and river views, it allows you to make entirely new visual connections between different parts of Manhattan while maintaining a remarkably intimate relationship with the surrounding streets.

The park, which currently extends as far north as West 20th Street, is conceived as a series of interwoven events, like chapters of a book. Approached from the south along Washington Street in the meatpacking district, its 30-foot-high steel deck, supported on big steel columns and sliced off brutally at one end, makes for a striking contrast with the green, leafy landscape atop it. A street-level entry plaza, paved in concrete, is tucked underneath, and a broad metal staircase, with sleek brushed stainless-steel handrails, leads up to the structure’s underbelly. Rusted Corten steel plates line the opening in the deck’s floor, emphasizing the violence of the cut.

A subtle play between contemporary and historical design, industrial decay and natural beauty sets the tone. The surface of the deck, for example, is made of concrete planks meant to echo the linearity of the old tracks. The path slips left and right as it advances, so that at some points you are right up against the edge of the railing and at others you are enveloped in the gardens.

And those gardens have a wild, ragged look that echoes the character of the old abandoned track bed when it was covered with weeds, just a few years ago. Wildflowers and prairie grasses mix with Amelanchier bushes, their branches speckled with red berries. Mr. Corner designed planters to hold the taller trees, and the Gansevoort entry is marked by a cluster of birches. On Saturday the gardens were swarming with bees, butterflies and birds. I half expected to see Bambi.

Occasionally, you catch a glimpse of a fragment of track lying in the grass, a carefully placed reminder of the High Line’s former life.

What saves all this from becoming a saccharine exercise in nostalgia is the sophistication with which these elements are fused together. The benches, for example, have a sleek contemporary feel; they are made of simple wood slats that lock into the deck’s concrete planks. The lighting, too, is uncommonly subtle. Most of it is embedded in the bottom of the handrails to keep the focus on the plantings and keep glare to a minimum.

As you continue north, the narrative keeps shifting. The park tunnels through an old brick commercial building just above 13th Street; dimly lit, the cavernous space offers an escape from the heat of a sunny day or from a downpour. Farther up, a spur breaks off and dead-ends into another building, creating a more private pocket overgrown with grasses and shrubs. The most original feature is a small amphitheater that angles down from the center of the deck near 17th Street. Sitting on rows of wood benches, visitors can look through an enormous window up the length of 10th Avenue, the cars and taxis roaring out from directly beneath their feet.

But as mesmerizing as the design is, it is the height of the High Line that makes it so magical, and that has such a profound effect on how you view the city. Lifted just three stories above the ground, you are suddenly able to perceive, with remarkable clarity, aspects of the city’s character you would never glean from an office window. At some points, billboards and parking structures dominate the foreground. At others, you are directly below the cornice line, so that you seem to be floating among the rooftops.

Longer views open up down narrow side streets to the Hudson, or east across the city.

At the same time, you are still close enough to make eye contact with people on the sidewalks, so that you never lose your connection to the street life. The High Line is the only place in New York where you can have this experience — one that is as singular in its way as standing on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

None of this would matter if the architects had not struggled so hard to regulate access. It often seemed that almost every developer working in the meatpacking district, at one point or another, was begging to have an apartment building or hotel connect directly to the gardens. Yet remarkably, there are only four access points between Gansevoort and 20th Streets. This adds considerably to the park’s low-key mood, and reinforces the notion that it is a place for a quiet stroll, an escape from the trendy neighborhoods below.

We still need to see what will happen when the High Line gets on the major tourist itineraries. The second phase, extending it up to 30th Street, is set to start construction in a few weeks, which will raise new design questions. And developers are still fighting to build bridges to the gardens from their buildings.

But the care and patience with which this project was developed, both on the part of the architects and the High Line’s founders, Joshua David and Robert Hammond, is a rarity anywhere. They have given New Yorkers an invaluable and transformative gift.

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

lofter1

June 10th, 2009, 10:39 AM

FYI: This activity (as printed inthe NY Post (http://www.nypost.com/seven/06102009/news/regionalnews/its_high_praise_173420.htm)) is verboten (and if Horticulturalist Piet Oudolf sees you doing it he'll let you know it in no uncertain terms, as he did to a news phtotgrapher during the Mayor's ribbon cutting on Monday):

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06102009/photos/hannah_ross_max_english.jpg

The reason is that all of the gravel covered areas along the tracks are part of the very delicate planting medium which is shallow and easily compressible -- any footfalls on that graveled area will damage the roots of the plants. Imagine 5 or 10 or 50 feet pounding down on the roots days on end. Before long lthere will be dead patches everywhere.

So please do not walk on the gravel or play on the tracks in planted areas :D

stache

June 10th, 2009, 11:40 AM

Do not expect delicate plant structures to survive in NYC. Please choose hardy specimens. ;)

lofter1

June 10th, 2009, 11:52 AM

The specimens are very hardy. Check out what's been done by Oudolf at Battery Park (http://www.designed2b.nl/?p=164&cpage=1), where the site is buffeted by winds and salt water. But at the HL the area below the gravel isn't very deep. Not much will survive the stress of compacted roots.

The only other viable option would probably have been a swath of ground cover, ala a low-lying green roof (http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/plants/handbooks/cacti/greenroof.html).

NYatKNIGHT

June 10th, 2009, 12:46 PM

You mean tell your children to get out of the plantings? Now you've gone too far. They're children - today you're apparently not allowed to tell them they can't do something. (another one of my pet peeves)

scumonkey

June 10th, 2009, 10:43 PM

Night shots from curbed (they found their way back online)!
Photos by: Will Femia
http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3356/3611580762_a69e2cb6a7_o.jpg

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BrooklynRider

June 10th, 2009, 11:05 PM

The plantings are reminiscent of the Hudson River Park up above 25th Street. A butterfly's delight.

Edward

June 11th, 2009, 01:40 AM

From today's meetup:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3376/3616097460_2abdfa6b0f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudentas/3616097460/)

Jasonik

June 11th, 2009, 02:50 AM

Many nice photos here (http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/09/new-yorks-high-line-park-in-the-sky-opens-today/).

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/hlfingeries2.jpg
by Jill Fehrenbacher (http://www.inhabitat.com/author/jill/)

Alonzo-ny

June 11th, 2009, 06:24 AM

This is the best thing NY has done in a long time.

Merry

June 11th, 2009, 09:16 AM

Nice composition, Edward. The IAC Building looks great lit up like that.

I love the "Fingers of Foliage" theme:

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/hlfingersofgrass.jpg

stache

June 11th, 2009, 01:00 PM

Well I just did the walk. It's very beautiful. Several people were walking IN THE WRONG DIRECTION! :eek: :eek: :eek: ;) The 20th. St. stairwell and overpass is only wide enough for one person at a time. :confused:

MidtownGuy

June 11th, 2009, 02:22 PM

I can't wait to go down there. I was hoping the weather would improve today. Fat chance.

lofter1

June 11th, 2009, 04:19 PM

Today, with the rainy misty weather and low attendance, they loosened up the restrictive entry policies until just before lunch and were allowing folks to enter at all points. Depending on crowds and time of day they will continue to experiment with opening up access to make it easier to come and go.

But don't count on that happening this weekend -- good weather seems to be on the way and expectations for Saturday & Sunday are for lots of folks to show up and take the stroll.

BTW: Friends of the High Line provides over 70% of the annual operation budget and are responsible for maintenance of the park. If anyone has DEEP pockets and wants to PARTY there are big FESTIVITIES up on the rails this coming Monday night, June 15 (http://www.thehighline.org/events/all/2009/6/opening-summer-benefit):

Opening Summer Benefit

6/15/2009 6:00 PM

Friends of the High Line's Opening Summer Benefit on Monday, June 15, marks the culmination of 10 years of efforts to save, preserve, and open the High Line as a New York City park. This year's benefit will include the First Party on the High Line, presented by Calvin Klein Collection.

Dinner tickets, which include admission to the First Party on the High Line, are $1,000 (limited quantity available), $2,500, or $5,000. Tables start at $15,000.

Funds raised will help us hire gardeners and staff to maintain the park at the standards we have all imagined.

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of Friends of the High Line and the 75th Anniversary of the structure itself.

Dinner begins at Pier Sixty at 6:00PM, followed by the First Party on the High Line.

Along with celebrating the opening summer of the High Line, we'll honor three dynamic individuals who have helped turn the dream of the High Line into reality: Lisa Maria & Philip Falcone and Edward Norton.

The Benniest

June 12th, 2009, 12:54 AM

Love love love this!! It's amazing! I can't wait to get back to NYC and walk around this area. It's so beautiful. :rolleyes:

stache

June 12th, 2009, 07:59 AM

Hmm so they're closing off what sounds like the entire line for a private party already(?)

lofter1

June 12th, 2009, 09:23 AM

Think of it as a "Temporary Closure for Necessary Maintenance" ;)

Merry

June 12th, 2009, 10:25 AM

I was very surprised by the views expressed by the actor (section highlighted in blue). Is this an accurate reflection of New Yorkers' behaviour towards the built environment?

High Line opens; Greenway raises parks to a new level

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_319/line2.gif

Parkgoers enjoyed a section of the recently opened High Line just north of 14th St. on Monday night. The park is open seven days a week until 10 p.m.

By Albert Amateau and Patrick Hedlund

The first segment of the High Line park opened on Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony including Mayor Bloomberg and other officials, along with Joshua David and Robert Hammond, who 10 years ago began promoting the idea of converting a derelict, elevated railroad into a park-in-the sky.

A class of 22 first-grade students from P.S. 11 in Chelsea was among the gathered officials, Friends of the High Line and press celebrating the June 8 opening of the park segment between Gansevoort St. in the Meat Market and W. 20th St. in Chelsea.

Construction crews were also on hand ready to continue working on the second segment of the elevated park, between W. 20th and W. 30th Sts., with 2010 as the target completion year.

The project’s third and final segment loops west around the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rail yards at W. 30th St. and goes up to W. 34th St., where the old rails dip below the street across from the Javits Convention Center. But the third segment’s future is uncertain.

“We will be working very hard to make it part of the park, but it belongs to the M.T.A. and it depends on what’s going to happen there,” Bloomberg said of the High Line’s northernmost section. The M.T.A. has designated The Related Companies to develop a project above the rail yards, but Related has not yet decided whether to preserve the High Line segment or take it down.

Bloomberg, however, had some definite good news for the High Line. The city had just signed off on the sale of city-owned land to the Whitney Museum for the new Whitney Downtown to be built at the Gansevoort St. end of the elevated park, the mayor announced.

The High Line park, with grand stairways at Gansevoort, 14th, 16th, 18th and 20th Sts., will be open to the public seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Bloomberg called the park “a great gift to the city” from Friends of the High Line, the largely volunteer organization founded by David and Hammond, which will run the park under the supervision of the city Department of Parks and Recreation.

The park’s landscape design, by James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio Renfro, with plantings by Piet Oudolf, “exceeds expectations,” the mayor said.

Segments one and two are projected to cost $152 million and Friends of the High Line has raised $44 million, the mayor said. The city has committed $112.2 million to the project, and The Friends will be responsible for 70 percent of the cost of maintaining the High Line.

New York State recently provided $400,000, and during the past couple of years kicked in $23.8 million.

Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg, who together donated $5 million to the High Line in 2006, more recently put up another $10 million, conditioned on a matching donation, which was met in short order by Philip Falcone, a billionaire hedge-fund manager, and his wife, Lisa Marie, the mayor said.

Hammond recalled that the High Line was built 75 years ago to raise New York Central Railroad tracks off the street where trains were a menace to pedestrians. David thanked Bloomberg for embracing an idea that had been mocked by his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani.

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_319/cut.gif

At High Line ribbon cutting on Monday, flanked by P.S. 11 students, from left, the students’ teacher, Farida Ahmad, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Robert Hammond of Friends of the High Line, hedge-fund manager Philip Falcone, Josh David of Friends of the High Line (partially hidden from view), Mayor Bloomberg, Lisa Marie Falcone, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Congressmember Jerrold Nadler, Diane von Furstenberg and Borough President Scott Stringer.

Amanda Burden, the City Planning Commission chairperson, said that when she first came up to the High Line she knew that the city had to preserve an irreplaceable part of the city infrastructure. The rezoning of the right of way was a key piece of the project that is just being realized, Bloomberg said, noting that there are 33 new buildings recently completed or being constructed as a result of the rezoning. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place under part of Andre Balazs’s recently completed Standard Hotel, which straddles the High Line at Little West 12th St. Balazs’s project, however, wasn’t affected by the rezoning, which was only in Chelsea, north of 14th St.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe was in his glory, opening another park two weeks after reopening the renovated part of Washington Square Park and a few days after opening the rebuilt Harlem Piers on the Hudson River.

Congressmember Jerrold Nadler recalled 1983 when he joined the late Peter Obletz in an effort to save the elevated rail line that was being dismantled piece by piece from Spring to Gansevoort Sts.

“We didn’t envision anything like this,” Nadler said.

Back in the 19th century, the state Legislature said that trains on 10th Ave. had to be preceded by a man on horseback waving a red flag or a lantern. In 1929, the state authorized the West Side Improvement, popularly known as the High Line.

Later on Monday, during an informal question-and-answer session, Burden ranked the park among the city’s greatest achievements during her tenure.

“This is without question — no contest — my favorite project,” she told The Villager. “It’s been my number-one priority since the day I got appointed, so there’s tremendous satisfaction in seeing this happen today.”

The event evoked a more emotional response from Hammond, who said he’s recently been driven to tears while witnessing the fruits of his labor.

“I’ve been crying a lot,” he said. “My dad always said the best response to joy is tears, and that’s definitely been happening.”

For David, who has spent as much time atop the High Line as anyone throughout the years, actually seeing the public take to the park has been his greatest reward.

“It isn’t really complete until today, when the doors open and people come into it,” he said. “It’s just so exciting to see people walking up the stairs and looking around and beginning to use this park. It’s magical.”

The High Line represents another leap forward for the fast-growing Meatpacking District, which rose in recent years from gritty to glam seemingly overnight. Annie Washburn, executive director of the Meatpacking District Initiative, said the new public space will encourage a more diverse crowd to explore the newly upscale area.

“Hopefully, what the park will do is draw in the people that feel that they can’t come to the neighborhood,” she said. “And the neighborhood will then start to include more people as a response to that.”

Just-married couple James Lui and Cynthia Tsui had planned to take their wedding photos nearby in the West Village before getting the news that the park was already open.

“It was easy enough just to walk up and see if it was open,” said Lui, who used to live with his wife in Chelsea. “We came right up, and it was amazing — it was really beautiful.”

The two posed for shots along the length of the High Line as passersby congratulated them.

“Our photographer’s in heaven,” Lui added. “She really likes a lot of the angles, the perspectives — just the whole look and appeal of everything.”

On Tuesday, the High Line’s official opening day, a handful of visitors took to the park in the morning despite intermittent downpours.

Danielle Roberts and Michael Rodenbush made their way down from the Upper East Side to take a tour, and said they’d trek down regularly because “it’s a destination.”

“I think it’s really nice that they saved something that was an important part of the city’s history, and I think it’s really well executed,” said Roberts, 45.

Ella Georgiades, a West Villager, came with her two daughters, 2-year-old Tasha and 2-month-old Bea. The High Line is “completely awesome and very kid-friendly,” she said.

“I didn’t quite get that it was going to be so landscaped; I thought it was just going to be like a walkway,” said Georgiades, 31. “I got the whole park-in-the-sky, oasis thing, but I didn’t think it would really work out. I think it’s worked out very, very nicely. It’s the kind of thing you’d see in Montreal, not in New York City.”

Bethany Wall, a Jersey City resident, made a quick stop over at the High Line in between work engagements in the area.

“I love different perspectives of New York and also the connection to history,” said the 48-year-old. “I will definitely come back here as a destination, myself and with others.”

Patrick Shepherd, 29, an actor who was auditioning in a building that overlooks the park, came down after he saw construction workers replaced by regular visitors that day. He worried that, as a public venue, the park might suffer from New Yorkers’ disrespect.

“Within in a week it’ll be all graffiti and spit and gum and whatever else all over it, but for now it’s beautiful,” he said. Regardless, he predicted crowds will still flock from all over to experience the High Line.

“I definitely think that it’ll be a thing that tourists will come check out when they’re in the city, because it’s unique,” he said. “How many parks are in the sky?”

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_319/highlineopens.html

stache

June 12th, 2009, 11:03 AM

The culture of NYC is extremely different from AU. It's pretty routine for anything within range to suffer attempts at being severely maimed.

MidtownGuy

June 12th, 2009, 11:47 AM

We certainly have our share of vandals but I think that guy's remarks are overly pessimistic and he was being a drama queen.

Alonzo-ny

June 12th, 2009, 12:01 PM

I want to see more building interaction with the Highline. It seems (from what Ive seen) that most buildings that touch it just envelope it or cantilever over it. Id like to see more buildings spill out onto it and make it part of the building.

philvia

June 12th, 2009, 01:23 PM

stache

June 12th, 2009, 01:43 PM

The impression I get is this is not being allowed. I agree, everything should open up to it. It needs to be vibrant. Introspective is for the beach.

lofter1

June 12th, 2009, 04:12 PM

Correction: The Park will NOT be closed to the public on Monday during the time of the Gala -- the NORTH portion will be fully accessible.

Regarding the possibility of connecting the HL to surrounding buildings: Such entryways directly into cuildings that abut Sections One & Two of the HL will not be constructed. One thing that is very noticeable is that folks "decompress" as they walk up the stairs and enter this "alternate NYC" that is the HL. IMHO there is no doubt that direct entryways into the HL from commercial / retail spaces on high would alter that experience. Complete removal from the normal NYC experience of shopping / browsing is one of the great aspects of the park. Also, there are points of egress every few blocks, so it's easy enough to come and go.

meesalikeu

June 12th, 2009, 04:23 PM

lofter1

June 12th, 2009, 04:28 PM

If you borrow a wheel chair or rent a kid & stroller you can enter via elevator at 16th ;)

btw: People can only enter Governors island, Ellis island & Statue of Liberty by way of a Ferry. Folks will manage.

ZippyTheChimp

June 12th, 2009, 05:39 PM

IMHO there is no doubt that direct entryways into the HL from commercial / retail spaces on high would alter that experience. Complete removal from the normal NYC experience of shopping / browsing is one of the great aspects of the park.I agree.

Alonzo-ny

June 12th, 2009, 07:22 PM

Im not suggesting retail onto the park just interaction of some kind, any kind. Complete separation is a shame. You would still have the isolation. The way the seating area built into the park interacts with the city, more like that but with buildings and still separate from the city below.

fioco

June 12th, 2009, 09:15 PM

The early champions of the High Line, those who treasured the wild stillness of the abandoned tracks, sought to preserve that experience for the future. The tracks were off-limits. Those who ventured onto it risked being caught trespassing. Like an untended prairie field, the High Line brought country stillness to the hectic city surrounding it.

A major 'revision' was required to make the High Line safe for the public and to entice donors and the city to invest to such an unlikely venture. The early champions are still actively involved in the preservation of the tranquility amidst disorder that so enchanted them.

There are enough opportunities to sit a cafe and lightly engage the world around us, indeed, a plethora of opportunities in this fair city. In a way, the High Line is like a cloister walk, the pathway only wide enough for a few to be abreast, and a cultivated nature within arm's reach.

Let's refrain from being the experts, and instead, let's permit ourselves to enter the world so ingeniously guided by the true experts: the early champions of the High Line.

Alonzo-ny

June 12th, 2009, 10:03 PM

The original use of the highline was transporting things from building to building, right? So why ignore that part of its history also. I dont want shops and cafes along the route, that would be inappropriate.

lofter1

June 12th, 2009, 11:26 PM

All of the points where the tracks actually used to run into various buildings along the HL were long ago sealed off by those building owners. This can be seen both at the NBC Building (Nabisco) on the east side of Tenth between 15th / 16th and one block north at the Manhattan Storage Building on the east side of Tenth between 16th / 17th. There are no points above 16th Street where the tracks extend into buildings. The one point where the HL reaches toward a building near the northern end is where it crosses Tenth at 30th Street and is chopped off above the sidewalk where it would enter the old building on the west side of Tenth between 29th / 30th. (That extension of the HL that runs east from the main tracks at 30th Street is The Spur (http://www.thehighline.org/news/2008/12/07/save-the-spur-video-and-rally-recap).)

Alonzo-ny

June 13th, 2009, 03:45 AM

Im thinking about new buildings as well.

Merry

June 13th, 2009, 10:58 AM

It's much easier to appreciate the wonderful impact of the HL in relation to its surroundings when seen from above :):

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/06/gal_high10.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/06/gal_high11.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/06/gal_high16.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/06/gal_high9.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/06/gal_high8.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/06/gal_high15.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/06/gal_high17.jpg

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/06/gal_high18.jpg

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/galleries/green_mile_high_line_park_opens_in_manhattan/green_mile_high_line_park_opens_in_manhattan.html# ph0

Merry

June 13th, 2009, 11:36 AM

The PDF is quite cool.

The twin pleasures of the High Line: a petite new park, and a district of lively architecture

By Justin Davidson (http://nymag.com/nymag/justin-davidson)
Published Jun 7, 2009

http://images.nymag.com/arts/architecture/features/architecture090615_560.jpg (http://nymag.com/arts/articles/09/06/architecture090615.pdf)

The High Line’s levitating parkland has been so long and so rapturously anticipated that the nine-block segment that opens this week can hardly compete with its own story. The tale is a triumph of urban salvage. A pair of young preservationists falls in love with a weedy, ironbound rail bed threading its way above the streets of West Chelsea and the meatpacking district. Owners of the lots it crosses want to tear it down. Finally, through the miracle of persuasion, the elevated railway is converted from eyesore to amenity. But wait: There’s the real-estate subplot! Developers use the little park to leverage their most wild-eyed ambitions. City officials rewrite the zoning, values climb, and architects arrive from the far corners of the realm.

At this point we find ourselves with two distinct High Lines. One is a quiet passeggiata of deliberately rough design, the other a larger district of new art and fresh development. A year ago, the condos popping up along Tenth Avenue were a visible expression of consumer confidence. Cocky buyers were spending $2,000 for each square foot of as-yet-nonexistent floor space and a hundred times that much for a patch of colored canvas with which to adorn their future walls. (The world has changed; the apartments keep on coming, whether they’re wanted or not, and who knows if anyone will be buying art to furnish them?)

All this metamorphosis hangs on a short and slender thread of park. The High Line emulates Paris’s Promenade Plantée, a magical arbor that runs nearly three miles atop a disused railway viaduct, from the Bastille Opera to the city’s edge. But for now, the New York version goes hardly anywhere. At 20th Street, it hits a chain-link fence separating the current park from its future extension. You can stroll the entire open length in less than ten minutes.

The park itself is a pleasant stroke of green, designed by Field Operations with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, that revives the romance of industrial brawn. A lithe, glass-walled steel staircase hangs from the superstructure at Gansevoort Street, leading to a hole cut in the trestle. It’s a fine way to make an entrance into this Jack-and-the-Beanstalk world, where nature and design have been arranged to simulate neglect. The walkway of concrete planks blurs into the grass. Sections of the original track materialize and peter out. Wooden deck chairs on train wheels slide along the rails, like pieces of equipment left over from another era. (That wistfulness may be undermined, in the early months at least, by lines to get in. The Parks Department plans to manage the flow of humanity by issuing wristbands. Can reserved tickets be far behind?)

Though the High Line is sensitively landscaped, inventively furnished, and beguilingly lit, I suspect the designers will come to regret a few decisions. The gaps between those planks of concrete will surely snap heels, catch wads of chewing gum, and fill up with debris. The edges of the walkway that curl up to keep wheelchairs from drifting into the grass also make the able-bodied stumble.

A couple of wider sections tend to the pastoral, with verdure shielding the pathway. But the architects never lose sight of the desire to behold the city beyond and below, and at times they satisfy that urge with a theatrical voilà. At 17th Street, a section of the structure falls away to create a grandstand suspended vertiginously above Tenth Avenue. The move echoes similar hanging spaces by Diller Scofidio + Renfro: the mediathèque of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, which looks over a thrilling expanse of harbor; the Juilliard dance studio perched above Broadway. This one offers a grittier vista of uptown traffic.

As the park makes its debut, the neighbors are waking up from a building binge, looking a little goofy. The fussiest of the condos to near completion is 245 Tenth (at 24th Street), by the Brooklyn architect-developers Jared Della Valle and Andrew Bernheimer. Their building aches to be hipper than it is. It nuzzles the High Line and bulges on the way up. The shape maximizes square footage, but Della Valle and Bernheimer have also declared it an abstraction of a steam locomotive’s puff of smoke, evoking ye olde freight trains. Extending the metaphor, they wrapped the building in steel panels with diamond-shaped nubs punched in a digitized cloud pattern: denser near the bottom, dissipating toward the upper floors. It’s very clever, or would be if there were a reason to reside in a simulated cloud. The arbitrary and anachronistic reference does little to solve the problems of an awkward L-shaped building wrapped around a gas station.

Willful idiosyncrasy isn’t all bad, however. The most flamboyant building of the too-late wave is also the best: Jean Nouvel’s glistering half-cylinder that sweeps around the corner from 19th Street onto Eleventh Avenue. Construction involved a dance of giant megapanels, factory-made in China and hoisted into place. Each is a mosaic of variously sized windows at an assortment of rakish tilts. The angled panes reflect light in different directions, so that they sparkle like rhinestones on an upthrust sleeve. The building is a fabulous ornament, a tour de force of glitz. Nouvel’s 100 Eleventh Avenue and Frank Gehry’s IAC headquarters now pose and preen together, the glimmer twins of the West Side, sensuously advertising the future of glass.

The strange thing about West Chelsea’s new chic is that it must contend with acres of immutable drear. It remains a mouse-gray zone. Nouvel’s bauble rises alongside broad rapids of traffic, and its adorable little balconies catch the rising fumes. With astonishing sleight of hand, Nouvel has managed to keep the apartments simultaneously protected from the street and open to the views by sandwiching sunrooms and outdoor spaces between layers of glass. The wall of windows drops all the way down to the street, and the lower stories have a second perimeter of glass panes and voids: a rhythmic alternation of nothing and almost nothing. In other works, Nouvel has mastered the architecture of desire, a play of screens and veils. Here he offers a teasing double layer of peekaboo gauziness. He has presented the city with a proud object of desire, an emblem of real estate’s timeless erotic appeal.

There’s something exhilarating, and also amusing, about the arrival of such an exuberant building in somber times, like a bride bursting into a funeral hall. Perhaps 100 Eleventh isn’t late to the last party, but early to the next one. This is New York: Excess will eventually seem natural again, and when it does, this building will be ready to oblige.

Nouvel’s building represents commercial development at its finest, but it remains at odds with the High Line, which was brought into being by activists who took the notion of grassroots quite literally. Idealistic designers restored railings and doled out stairways, and chose grasses to recall the tranquil days when the structure was beautifully forgotten. Their efforts attracted commerce, which is only to be expected; if the Garden of Eden reopened today, someone would put up time-shares just outside the gates. Maybe the recession is the purists’ revenge. The green is gone, while the greenery is just getting lush.

http://nymag.com/arts/architecture/features/57176/

Jasonik

June 13th, 2009, 01:22 PM

^ Great writing!

The dichotomy between authenticity and artifice is a splendid metaphor for our times. Attempts by the latter to co-opt and leverage the former can lead to clownishly ironic contrasts where artifice becomes a caricature of itself while the authentic effortlessly becomes moreso.

http://www.thecityreview.com/s02pco3.gif
"Fountain," by Marcel Duchamp, glazed cast ceramic urinal with black paint, 14 1/8 by 18 7/8 by 24 inches

In later years [Duchamp] insisted that there was 'no beauty, no ugliness, nothing particularly aesthetic' about the readymades, so whatever the criteria for selection, aesthetic taste was to play no role. Nothing would distinguish a set of canonical readymades from a set of nondescript household objects, set out for purpose of garage sale. Nothing would prompt ordinary persons to think of them as art - which is part of what makes them intoxicating, conceptually speaking, as art. Without references to the readymade, neither the art history of the twentieth century nor contemporary philosophy of art can be grasped. ~ Arthur Danto

Which came first, the gallery or the art?

econ_tim

June 14th, 2009, 11:48 PM

lots of people turned out to see the highline today

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3617/3626012055_09d9b4b82d_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3623/3626871376_f70d2c1c99.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2469/3626048087_b973ac0e3c_b.jpg

bonus:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3544/3626045571_055e505027_b.jpg

stache

June 15th, 2009, 12:32 AM

Yikes I'm glad I went when I did!

TREPYE

June 15th, 2009, 01:03 AM

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2469/3626048087_b973ac0e3c_b.jpg
This shot is tremendous and emphasizes on one of the best aspects of this park and that is the lowrise views that it provides. In most places of NYC we are too low to get the effect of the lowrise building along with the highrise skyscraper. Or the highrise observatories are too high to make out many smaller lowrises This park will provide some outstanding public access of views that a select few lowrise residentials benefactors enjoy. Maybe even better because it is greenery backdropped by a lowrise which is backdropped by a highrise. Fantastic! Almost like a lowrise observatory.

meesalikeu

June 15th, 2009, 04:27 AM

holy mackeral look at that crowd! is this whats in store for the high line all summer? :eek:

lofter1

June 15th, 2009, 11:13 AM

On a nice weekend day, no doubt they'll be lining up for weeks to come.

lofter1

June 15th, 2009, 11:41 AM

The lot which has just been cleared at the southern end of the High Line (along Gansevoort Street) is where the new Renzo Piano Whitney Downtown (http://www.dexigner.com/design_news/whitney-museum-unveils-design-by-renzo-piano-for-new-building.html) will rise. It's a stepped-back design with roof gardens and open-air galleries; I just wish the first setback right along the HL was not so high, but at or below the level of the HL to give it some breathing space. In the coming years as adjacent lots along the HL are developed the "open" experience of an amble along the HL will be greatly altered.

http://cdx.dexigner.com/article/17061/Whitney_Museum_Design_by_Renzo_Piano_for_New_Downt own_Building.jpg

http://www.whitney.org/www/downtown_building_project/map_4_30.jpg

*

stache

June 15th, 2009, 11:44 AM

It's best to enjoy this now.

meesalikeu

June 19th, 2009, 05:21 PM

here's the cleared future whitney lot next to the high line at gansevoort street:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1180287.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1180288.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1180304.jpg

^ these are from 6/9. i was up there again the day before yesterday and there was a heck of a lot more site prep action going on.

these are shots of the whitney model that was up at diane von furstenburgs shop during the meatpacking district design festival last month:

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1170961-1.jpghttp://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1170962-1.jpghttp://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1170963-1.jpghttp://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1170964-1.jpghttp://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1170965-1.jpghttp://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1170966-1.jpghttp://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f370/meesalikeu2/number%20two/P1170967-1.jpg

BrooklynRider

June 19th, 2009, 11:06 PM

I walked the High Line today.

It's as beautiful as the photos suggest and other forum members have written.

It was also as crowded as 42nd Street during New Year's Eve. Really, really bad - like dangerously crowded if there was an emergency.

kz1000ps

June 29th, 2009, 12:46 AM

David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) recently had this to say on his blog (http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2009/06/061009-high-lines-and-black-metal.html):

Walked along the just opened, not quite finished High Line elevated park last night after taking my daughter and her pals to a birthday dinner. It's extraordinary... postmodern zen... the feeling of strolling on an elevated walkway is pretty special. Romantic but industrial. Slick but free.

kz1000ps

June 29th, 2009, 01:42 AM

Also, I was in the city last weekend and walked from 14th Street on up to the current terminus and somehow forgot to post the pictures. Anyway, this is how crowded the High Line was at 1pm on Monday the 22nd:

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/6821/img2029d.jpg

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/4665/img2030h.jpg

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/430/img2031g.jpg

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1663/img2033l.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8767/img2034r.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/9504/img2035dpf.jpg

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/9228/img2037p.jpg

Lovely vista, the bridge does much to give the space a pleasing sense of enclosure:
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5594/img2038g.jpg

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6200/img2039r.jpg

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/9559/img2040t.jpg

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6218/img2041a.jpg

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4624/img2042.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4918/img2044.jpg

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/4158/img2045w.jpg

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1255/img2048b.jpg

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1084/img2050s.jpg

Quite the fine assemblage, I like how the 11th Ave superstars manage to make that dull glass box look rather decent:
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1989/img2051u.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/403/img2052w.jpg

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5596/img2054u.jpg

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/7936/img2056atz.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/2196/img2059byz.jpg

http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/9444/img2060d.jpg

the sheer grittiness in this pic is intoxicating!
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/2893/img2061.jpg

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9020/img2062h.jpg

Thoughts: as has been picked up on by plenty of other writers so far, the dichotomy here is impossible to ignore. One second you're thinking about the old iron rails, and the next you're looking at the almost-reclined chairs and benches, pondering the '00s-cum-'60s vibe they give off (clearly bearing the mark of DS+R).

The concrete planks don't look like concrete -- not because of the concrete itself, but because one rarely sees concrete in "plank" form. Rather, the mind thinks of wood or perhaps something artificial like fiberglass, and I had to kneel down and actually touch it to ensure myself that it was in fact concrete. Also, the way how they dissolve into fingers and mingle with the plantings makes me want to also mingle with the greenery (the undefined border makes walking down those fingers seem like a natural thing to do). But of course you're not supposed to interact with the plants, so the overall effect is of literally being misled.

Lastly for now, the way how the old rails pop in and out had me feeling like a little kid playing hide and seek, constantly looking for where they could possibly be. That sense of surprise did much to keep me wanting to walk around and explore.

ablarc

June 29th, 2009, 07:29 AM

Thanks, kz, for an informative photo essay. Best High Line pics yet.

infoshare

June 29th, 2009, 10:41 AM

Brilliant KZ: folks from archBoston.org never fail to deliver the goods. :rolleyes:

http://www.archboston.org/community/index.php

stache

July 10th, 2009, 10:19 AM

Friends of the High Line would like to clarify of the new elevated park, that “the vast majority of the time, all access points are open.” In other words, High Line visitors can enter and exit at Gansevoort, 14th, 16th, 18th and 20th Sts. In the case the High Line reaches its capacity, parkgoers may be asked to enter via the Gansevoort St. stairs. “This has happened only a few times in our first few weeks, usually on sunny weekend afternoons,” noted Katie Lorah, F.O.H.L. communications manager.

Wrightfan

July 13th, 2009, 12:27 PM

I like the ipe wood controversy.

FOTHL should have avoided it altogether and used something else.

lofter1

July 13th, 2009, 04:30 PM

This is a COLOSSAL waste of money in my opinion.

Just demolish this ugliness and rehab the public space along the hudson!

Only in NY can nostalgia defeat common sense EVERYTIME.

The view ^ from three years ago, before HL construction began :cool:

MidtownGuy

July 13th, 2009, 07:34 PM

That guy was a total moron.

MidtownGuy

July 14th, 2009, 01:14 PM

What's with the "water feature"? I've been up there 3 times already and haven't seen a drop of water anywhere. Supposedly it's near the sun deck lounge chairs?

lofter1

July 14th, 2009, 03:20 PM

I've seen it on 3 X ...

Seems they're having some trouble with getting an even flow across the entire expanse of the rippled surface where the water will flow from the west edge of the sun deck towards the center (where the water flows down through a grate and is re-circulated).

Hoping they will get it up and running for good before the real heat of summer comes (if that ever happens this year -- not that I'm complaining. 80 degrees without humidity in the middle of July makes NYC perfect).

Off (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patricia-zohn/culture-zohn-i-walk-the-h_b_222943.html):

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2009-06-30-baansundeck2.jpg

On (http://flavorwire.com/25189/high-line-interview-anne-pasternak-spencer-finch-creatove-time):

http://flavorwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/hl-playing-in-water-feature-300x225.jpg

The idea:

http://curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/3154/2610299825_2d34df1119_o.jpg

Merry

July 22nd, 2009, 06:53 AM

For High Line Visitors, Park Is a Railway Out of Manhattan

By DIANE CARDWELL

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/07/22/nyregion/22highline.600.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/07/22/nyregion/22highline.inline.650.jpg

The High Line is still under construction, with orange-vested workers busily adding last-minute touches. Yet the park, perched on an old elevated railway on the West Side of Manhattan, already seems like a permanent fixture, almost a small town in the air.

It has its own mobile skyline in the steady stream of heads (or, in the rain, umbrellas) bobbing above the trestle. It has its own economy, including the $15 High Line Picnic Baskets for sale at Friedman’s Lunch at the Chelsea Market (sandwich, cole slaw, pickle, chips, cookie, beverage). It has its own art scene, drawing students from Parsons sketching panoramas, and photographers armed with devices from cellphones to Leicas. It has its own neighborhoods and hot spots, shifting in feel throughout the day.

It even inspires crusty New Yorkers to behave as if they were strolling down Main Street in a small town rather than striding the walkway of a hyper-urban park — routinely smiling and nodding, even striking up conversations with strangers.

“Here people tend to be more friendly,” Kathy Roberson, who is retired but does volunteer work with the poor, said on Saturday. “Those same people, you might see them someplace else and, you know,” she broke off, raising her eyebrows, “they’re kind of stressed.”

A little more than a month since its first stretch opened, the High Line is a hit, and not just with tourists but with New Yorkers who are openly relishing a place where they can reflect and relax enough to get a new perspective on Manhattan.

Despite the complaints about noise, gentrification and tour buses spewing forth their cargo, many locals have fallen so hard and fast for the park that they are acting as impromptu tour guides, eager to show off their new love interest.

“It just gives you a whole new appreciation of Chelsea,” Amy Goodman, co-host of the radio and television news program “Democracy Now!,” was saying with an enthusiastic sweep of her arm to her companions early on a Friday. “It’s such an incredible celebration of urban architecture.”

Later, the evening found one of her group, Brenda Murad, leading a tour of her own for a friend from Mexico City.

Since its southernmost section — from 20th Street near 10th Avenue to the corner of Gansevoort and Washington Streets — opened to the public on June 9, the park has attracted more than 300,000 visitors, said Patrick Cullina, vice president of horticulture and park operations for the High Line.
Plans call for the park to reach as far north as 34th Street.

Weekdays it draws from 3,000 to 15,000 through its entrances at 20th, 18th, 16th, 14th and Gansevoort Streets. Weekends are busier, with roughly 18,000 to 20,000 visitors a day; but the park’s legal capacity is 1,700, so officials have often resorted to “special entry” for an hour or two, limiting entry to Gansevoort Street and, for those needing an elevator, 16th Street.

On Saturday around noon, the park was lively, but there was still plenty of room. Ms. Roberson had brought her mother, Josephine, and her neighbor Louis Smart, a retired opera singer and teacher, from their apartments on West 43rd Street, wanting to show them something a little different.

They were sitting on the topmost row at the Sunken Overlook, the centerpiece of 10th Avenue Square, which hovers over 16th and 17th Streets. In daylight the space functions like a central plaza, with trees scattered around benches, open areas and rows of amphitheater-style seating that offer a windowed view of cars and trucks rushing below on 10th Avenue.

Mealtimes tend to be most crowded, when people picnic, chat or just stare blankly at the traffic underfoot, often with children running serpentines through the seats. At night, the overlook turns into a Warholian conceptual installation, with its art-house vibe and screenlike windows.

But on Saturday, it was a stop on Amy Chin’s “urban birthday safari,” a daylong tour of attractions far above the ground, she said, inspired by the High Line. Ms. Chin, a consultant to nonprofit arts groups, was celebrating her 47th birthday with friends and family over lunch and a cake frosted in thick chocolate butter cream and poppy-red and saffron-orange flowers (“Van Gogh colors,” as her sister, Lily, put it).

Back at the top of the overlook, Mr. Smart was transfixed by the cake.
“Now, I’ve got to see that,” he said.

“You’ve seen a cake before,” Kathy Roberson said. “Not like that!” Mr. Smart countered, descending.

After his return a few minutes later, Amy Chin approached, offering to share the confection. Josephine Roberson accepted. The High Line had not yet seemed to impress her much, but the cake did.

“She’s smiling now,” Kathy Roberson said, laughing.

There are other gathering places, like the passage beneath the Standard Hotel near Little West 12th Street, where the arching structure has created a breezeway with perpetual shade and cooling winds. The Standard is itself a draw, attracting people hoping for a glimpse of the racy displays in the huge plate-glass room windows of the hotel, which seeks out exhibitionist guests by promoting itself as a sleek sex palace. (“And now, the floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking the High Line at the Standard New York offer direct views to your most intimate moments,” read a notice on its blog).

There is plenty to see below the hotel, especially near 13th Street. On Friday around 7 p.m., a shifting cluster was leaning over the railing there, snapping pictures of the creative types sipping champagne at an open-air lounge, and of Marni Halasa, a figure skating instructor and “parade junkie” who was posing, arms held high — for a National Enquirer photo shoot, she said.

She was wearing what she called her mermaid outfit: long, form-fitting aquamarine sequined skirt slit nearly to the waist, halter top, shimmering cape held like angel wings, Rollerblades.

But there is no spot more coveted than the sundeck facing the Hudson River between 14th and 15th Streets, where the row of dark brown ipe wood lounge chairs brings bikini-clad sunbathers, picnicking families and affectionate couples throughout the day and evening. If it were the late 1980s, this would be Nell’s, albeit without the cocaine and cocktails: roving park security officers are vigilant about drinking, which is prohibited.
The visibility of the staff — maintenance workers, gardeners, volunteers wearing “Ask Me About The High Line” buttons — is important, Mr. Cullina said, in promoting the sense that the park is well maintained.

So on Sunday night, before the park’s 10 p.m. shutdown and 7 a.m. reopening, a maintenance worker was wheeling a garbage can along the sundeck.

“I’m looking for trash donation,” he called out, as if hawking hot dogs at a ball field. “Can I get a trash donation, y’all?”

A few along the way obliged. Meng Li, a bond analyst with a fondness for magic tricks, playfully fanned out a deck of cards. The pinks in the sky deepened toward purple, the red neon W of the hotel across the Hudson grew brighter, and the strains of Hector del Curto’s Eternal Tango Orchestra on Pier 54 drifted overhead.

One of Mr. Li’s companions, Nikoleta Kasa, took it all in, saying, “I’m lucky to live here.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/nyregion/22highline.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

Merry

July 31st, 2009, 10:11 AM

BLOOMY BACKS THE TAX ON HIGH LINERS

By KEVIN FASICK and JEREMY OLSHAN

July 30, 2009

Mayor Bloomberg supports higher taxes along the High Line.

The proposed business improvement district for the park, which would be the first in his administration to tax residents as well as merchants, is a great way to help pay for the upkeep of the park, a mayoral spokesman told The Post.

Although it's long been legal for BIDs to levy residents as well as businesses, such an arrangement has not been approved in many years.
The extra funds are needed because the crowds at the park, which opened two months ago, have far exceeded expectations, said Robert Hammond, co-founder of the Friends of the High Line.

Weekend crowds have averaged 20,000 visitors a day, while weekdays typically draw between 6,000 and 10,000 -- quadruple the original estimates.

"No. 1, the nice problem, I gather, is that the High Line has turned out to be a very big success. That's the good news," Bloomberg said.

The BID tax plan cannot go forward without the approval of the majority of residents and merchants, as well as the City Council, he said.
"If the community supports charging all property owners, then we'll support it, too," a spokesman for the mayor said.

"If this is very unpopular, and the majority of residents are opposed, we're not going to do this," Hammond said. "We're a community group, and we don't want this to be a sore spot."

The residents who would pay the tax -- roughly $30 to $90 year for a 1,000-square-foot apartment -- are unlikely to get any special privileges as a result.

There will not be "residents only" hours, Hammond said.
"This is a public park, and we want to keep it that way," he said. "Some people have suggested that we charge admission, but there are a lot of low-income residents in the area who would not be able to enjoy the park then."

Property owners will make back their money with the higher real-estate values the park brings, he said.

Those who live along the park are not so sure.

"The park is lovely; it's great that they did this, but they never asked us to foot the bill," said resident Rebecca Gordon, 40. "I have contributed to the park, but I think this is unfair."

Reut Edelman, 32, said he's never paid for any other city park.
"I don't see why or how they should be able to do that," he said. "I don't think they are trying to get people who live on the Upper West Side to pay for Central Park."

Merchants also had misgivings.

"If that's the case, then they should close the damn park down," said Kerry Nolen, manager of Los Davos, a Mexican restaurant near an entrance to the park. "It's not like we were asked about it before."
Tam Nguyen, the manager of the clothing shop Earnest Sewn, agreed.
"That's just ridiculous, because we were here first," she said. "None of us were ever given any sense we would be responsible for the upkeep."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07302009/news/regionalnews/manhattan/bloomy_backs_the_tax_on_high_liners_182076.htm

MidtownGuy

July 31st, 2009, 03:33 PM

Some people have suggested that we charge admission

How ridiculous and inappropriate.

stache

July 31st, 2009, 03:44 PM

In this town? :D

scumonkey

July 31st, 2009, 04:20 PM

What about charging the tour bus operators a fee that dump
out their loads of tourists there instead ?

MidtownGuy

July 31st, 2009, 06:41 PM

Those I would ban completely.;)

ablarc

August 1st, 2009, 09:49 AM

"If that's the case, then they should close the damn park down," said Kerry Nolen, manager of Los Davos, a Mexican restaurant near an entrance to the park. "It's not like we were asked about it before."

Tam Nguyen, the manager of the clothing shop Earnest Sewn, agreed.
"That's just ridiculous, because we were here first," she said. "None of us were ever given any sense we would be responsible for the upkeep."
There's gratitude for you. How much do you think their business has increased since the park opened?

A lousy ninety bucks?

lofter1

August 1st, 2009, 12:42 PM

ain't they neighborly ...

"If that's the case, then they should close the damn park down," said Kerry Nolen, manager of Los Davos a Mexican restaurant near an entrance to the park ...

I think the article mis-spelled the name of the restaurant. :p

Most likely it's Los Dados (http://www.losdadosmexican.com/dinner_menu.pdf), at the corner of Washington + Gansevoort, directly opposite the main HL entrance ...

$90 < 2 Pitchers of Los Dados Margaritas (@ $50 / Pitcher)

$90 = 1 Bottle of Champagne, Mumm Cordon Rouge 90 btl

I wonder what their prices were last year?

MidtownGuy

August 2nd, 2009, 03:12 PM

Too high.

Just like this idiot basket:

including the $15 High Line Picnic Baskets for sale at Friedman’s Lunch at the Chelsea Market (sandwich, cole slaw, pickle, chips, cookie, beverage).

Oooo, they even threw in a pickle. How generous! What an irresistible meal!
Seriously, this is beyond lame. Fifteen bucks for that is high line robbery. Plus I bet the portions are so tiny and precious that the basket wouldn't fill a bird's belly.
For people with a sense of value: forget the rip off at Friedman's...just go to a non-bourgeois place like Hector's and ask for that same lunch 'to go'.

MidtownGuy

August 2nd, 2009, 03:20 PM

10 pm is MUCH too early for this park to close, especially considering all of the nightlife in the area.

Ditto in Times Square, where they kick everyone off the TKTS steps at 1:00 am! There are still big crowds enjoying it at that time.
So much for "the city that never sleeps". Someone is intent on giving it a tranquilizer.

stache

August 2nd, 2009, 07:13 PM

I think a lot of this is connected to liability concerns especially regarding inebriated people.

MidtownGuy

August 2nd, 2009, 08:27 PM

lofter1

August 2nd, 2009, 09:59 PM

It's proabaly a budget issue. We've read that since the HL opened it's been determined that maintenance and other costs need to be augmented. No doubt the original (insufficient?) budget was planned with the hours from 7-10 in mind and extending the hours would only mean having to find additional funds. HL Is now in the hands of NYC Dept. of Parks and the decisions about hours, monitoring, etc. will come from the bureaucrats. That said, during summer months it would be great if it were open later, similar to other NYC Parks. But to make that argument to the powers that be it seems a money source would have to be part of the presentation.

Folks should go and enjoy the HL for what it is -- don't get all wrapped up in what it isn't.

MidtownGuy

August 3rd, 2009, 05:44 PM

Of course you're right, we're fortunate to have this at all.

However, at least during the summer months, as you said, it would be great to have it stay open longer. Ten o' clock is extremely early considering it doesn't even get dark until nearly nine, and the MP district is very alive with people at night. It's just nice to enjoy the night-scape of lights for a bit longer.

A cynical mind might think it's something besides the budget issue of paying a few security guards for a couple extra hours. Like, perhaps, too much of a bourgeois mentality of preciousness about this thing, or a mentality afraid that some club goers might smoke a joint up there or find a place to make-out, so we better just shut the whole thing down, also enabling the delicate plantings and bumblebees to put on their sleeping bonnets and recover from all those unwanted people. It's just all so precious, best kept for the squeaky clean, baby-stroller-pushing daytime demographic.

I guess I'm not that cynical...so I'll just figure it is mostly a matter of budget.

Ninjahedge

August 4th, 2009, 10:53 AM

You guys beat me to criticizing the nay-sayers at the end of the piece. Very negative. SOmethnig that is a minor yearly cost (probably a few hundred for the restaurants per year) to keep a NICE place that close is minor.

They may be valid in saying that people around Central Park should do the same, but that gets harder when you consider the size and usage of a park that big.

But aside from that, pointing a finger at someone else and saying "but what about HIM, he doesn't do it, why do WE??!?" is typical childish behavior.

If they do not like it, they can MOVE. I am sure there would be other residents and buisnesses that would like to be located near a clean, popular, and well maintained park.

One suggestion though. Although NYers are notoriously cheap, why don't they just try a donation system like they do at the Museums? (The Met? I forget who does that...). I don't know how they would be able to keep donation boxes safe (you know they would be busted the first week out), but you may be able to raise SOME cash from people (change, a dollar here or there) to help.

Maybe not, but still....

Alonzo-ny

August 4th, 2009, 10:57 AM

How are other parks funded? Is the HL alot more expensive to maintain than other parks requiring different ways of funding?

ZippyTheChimp

August 4th, 2009, 01:13 PM

Good question. Complicated answer.

All city parks are funded out of the budget. But the percentage is about one-half of 1%, and over the years, has been decreasing. While NY spends a lot in total funds, the percentage of total budget is much lower than other big cites.

The difference is private funding, of which NY has the highest percentage of US big cities. This sounds good until you consider that the private funding doesn't go into the common Parks budget, but is allocated to individual parks by conservancy groups. Central Park looks the way it does because it is basically run by the Central park Conservancy, which contributes to about 70% of the maintenance costs. This arrangement hurts other parks like Flushing Meadows-Corona, that have to rely more on the Parks budget.

So new parks in the system put demands on the Parks Dept that can't be met. So places like the High Line, BBP, and HRP have to be "self sustaining."

milleniumcab

August 6th, 2009, 12:57 AM

It is really nice to see such a project come to life and embraced by people. I had fun time with my daughter on High Line Park.

But, walking around the High Line Park, I noticed a potential hazard for the public. All the benches are connected to the ground by a ramp which is made with the same material as the ground. We both stumbled over one of them. At certain angles, it is difficult for an eye to catch it. I smell a lawsuit in the future...:eek:...

Derek2k3

August 6th, 2009, 06:46 PM

Hmmm...that's not very reasonable of them, IMHO.
Drunk people might fall off a subway platform too, but we don't close down the subway when the bars get busy. Hell, if someone is drunk enough they could also fall in the middle of a street and get run over.

Well a few months ago, a drunk fell off the platform, got hit by a train, and won a lawsuit against the MTA.

They said the conductor had enough time to stop... we live in a retarded country.

stache

August 6th, 2009, 08:07 PM

The Highline flowers are turning late summer/fall. :cool:

scumonkey

August 6th, 2009, 08:54 PM

Damn- and I haven't been able to see it - not one time yet!:eek:

lofter1

August 6th, 2009, 09:32 PM

If you can get over there there's an all access point at 16th just east of Tenth Avenue.

londonlawyer

August 7th, 2009, 01:37 PM

I walked the Highline last week. It's amazing. I think that the Standard Hotel looks like crap though. The glass is ugly and looks even worse with all of the curtains opened or closed in random directions. Also, the concrete on the edges of the facade looks like crap.

Balazs is a real loser. The Beaver looks like a Nouvel masterpiece compared to this POJ.

meesalikeu

August 7th, 2009, 06:04 PM

oh come on. at least the coloring is understated and it doesnt have idiotic day-glo yellow bands around it.

not to mention, a guy who is or was bumpin uglies w/ uma thurman is hardly a loser!

londonlawyer

August 7th, 2009, 06:10 PM

I agree with you re: Uma Thurman but respectfully disagree about the rest. This building is an eyesore.

meesalikeu

August 7th, 2009, 07:03 PM

although rougher and more value-engineered than we might ideally like, his dramatic yet understated standard hotel is far superior to his obnoxious/crass neon beaver dreadnaught downtown.

lofter1

August 7th, 2009, 10:47 PM

On a hot and sticky day The Standard is a godsend. It creates its own micro-climate down on the HL; one can almost always count on a breeze when strolling the rails.

And don't forget the entertainment value that the windows up above offer to the HL visitors. After the sun goes down it's a veritable peep show -- and some of the Standard's guests seem to be real scene stealers.

ablarc

August 8th, 2009, 01:18 PM

^ Is that intentional or inadvertent?

meesalikeu

August 9th, 2009, 11:23 AM

^ Is that intentional or inadvertent?

yes! :D

ZippyTheChimp

August 13th, 2009, 04:57 PM

High Line access is on track for two condos

By Will Glovinsky

The Parks Department will ask the City Council’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee on Wednesday for permission to negotiate concession agreements with two developers that would afford their private buildings access to the High Line. Though on private property, the access would be open to the public; and one building, the Caledonia condominium, at 450 W. 17th St., would maintain a staircase, elevator and A.D.A.-compliant public restrooms. The other building, to be developed at 333 Tenth Ave., would also have public access to the new elevated park and might contribute other unspecified amenities.

Both the Parks Department and the Friends of the High Line — the operators of the new park — made it clear that any connections from private buildings will also be public access points. Parks spokesperson Phil Abramson said in an e-mail that any potential connections will be “considered in context with the High Line’s landscape design, location of existing and planned entrances, and potential public amenities that may be provided.”

Andre Balazs’s new Standard Hotel had also been seeking High Line access. Novac Noury, who owns a development site on Little W. 12th St., also wants High Line access, but his property no longer has a connection to the elevated park, after a platform that formerly extended to the old railway was demolished for the hotel project.

The Villager is published by Community Media LLC.

lofter1

August 13th, 2009, 05:25 PM

The access through the Caledonia already exists (a staircse / an elevator), as do the public restrooms.

There is a terrace at the Caledonia between 16th / 17th Streets just to the east of the HL's "Tenth Avenue Square" that could be made accessible, but there seems to be little real need for it (if folks want to bring food / refreshments up to the park there are ample opportunities close by). But no doubt the Caledonia might like to have some sort of food concession in that spot where it would directly connect to that very active part of the HL.

Negotiations for these direct access points should be interesting. Clearly the building(s) would have a lot to gain from direct access to the HL, especially if it were to afford the buildings the opportunity to operate a commercial entity at the HL's edge.

Merry

August 14th, 2009, 09:06 AM

High Line plan is too taxing, neighbors cry

By Patrick Hedlund

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_328/line2.gif
A map of the revised proposed High Line Improvement District,
minus several residential blocks, shown in red, that were in the previous proposal.
The blocks in red were removed after complaints from property owners
and residents who objected to being included in the initiative.

The High Line’s recently proposed improvement district will unfairly force local residents and property owners to pay for the elevated greenway, charged a group of Chelsea neighbors who don’t think the community should have to pony up for the public “park in the sky.”

Last month the nonprofit Friends of the High Line began seeking support for the 37-block improvement district, covering the Meatpacking District and West Chelsea, which would generate about $1 million annually for maintenance of the High Line. The funds would be raised through a tax on nearby property owners, who would pay an annual assessment of either 9 cents or 3 cents per square foot based on their proximity to the park.

The High Line district would use the city’s business improvement district, or BID, program, which is supervised by the Depart-ment of Small Business Services, as a model to help pay for daily upkeep of the park running between Gansevoort and W. 30th Sts.

However, some local property owners don’t believe the fee should be passed on to them simply because the area has become a destination for luxury development and higher-income residents in recent years.

A pair of West Chelsea residents recently began reaching out to community stakeholders to gauge their reactions to the tax, claiming that the great majority rejects the idea of being forced to pay for the popular park space.

“I think that if the High Line would like to encourage private donations from people in the neighborhood and use that argument, then it’s up to individuals,” said Joshua Mack, who owns a four-story townhouse on W. 21st St. that lies outside the newly revised map of the proposed district. The improvement district’s new borders now exclude the London Terrace residential complex and the General Theological Seminary, among other buildings.

“But to assume that the neighborhood owes them something for the benefit that they perceive they have brought us, I think is inappropriate,” Mack said. “I think it’s condescending.”

Mack attended a public meeting last month regarding the improvement district hosted by F.H.L., and afterward joined with fellow property owner Maya Hess to start a petition against the proposal. Together, they polled about 200 residents and businesses throughout the neighborhood and found that most were unaware of the plan.

“The sign-up rate approached 100 percent,” said Hess, who owns an apartment on W. 22nd St. that was also excised from the initially proposed boundaries. “The strategic sample included a veritable cross-section of Chelsea, from studios to penthouses, from the smallest deli to commercial property owners with massive square footage.”

Hess and Mack also distributed fliers in the proposed district, drawing “hundreds” of e-mails from property owners opposed to the tax, Mack said.

The Friends of the High Line estimate total maintenance will cost between $3.5 million and $4.5 million per year for the park’s first two sections, with the second section — running from 20th St. to 30th St. — slated to open in fall 2010. In addition to the expected $1 million or so to be provided by the city, F.H.L. plans to raise anywhere from $1.5 million to $3 million through contributions, memberships fees, special events and sponsorships.

But Hess believed the annual funding to be generated through the improvement district will only increase over the years, because the initial 9- and 3-cent tax only takes into account the High Line’s first-year budget.

“It’s not predictive of what actually will be the case,” said Hess, who researched spending patterns at other business improvement districts and found that the average assessment of BID’s citywide is 6 percent of real estate taxes paid, according to the Department of Small Business Services.

“How can you just designate a small sliver of neighborhood to pay for a park that’s used by the entire city?” she added. “I don’t think that’s fair. And now the sliver is even smaller.”

The Friends stated that the district’s boundaries were redrawn as part of the organization’s continued examination of the neighborhood.

“The Improvement District Steering Committee, made up of engaged and active community members, is beginning to collect public opinion and make adjustments to the proposal based on that input and further analysis,” read a statement from F.H.L. “We want the final proposal to be an equitable one that will best benefit the people who live and work near the High Line. We look forward to a constructive dialogue.”

While David Alport’s apartment in a W. 22nd St. co-op building has been removed from the proposed district, he said he would still pay the tax to support a park he believes greatly benefits the neighborhood.

“The thing I know about the High Line is that it’s a project that’s been rendered with great sensitivity and engagement with the community,” he said. He acknowledged, though, that he still has questions about how the tax might be adjusted over the years.

Alport added that because of the improvement district’s structure that includes charging residents, he hopes the High Line would feature special programming or access for those individuals.

“There’s no doubt that it’s in our neighborhood’s interest to keep that park up despite the costs and changes that may come in the future, and I’m willing to pay a modest price to participate in its upkeep in what will be a continued benefit for the neighborhood,” he said.

However, the proposed district presents a challenge to D. Cahn, who owns an industrial warehouse on W. 27th St. that would require him to pay the higher, 9-cent tax. That works out to about $4,320 annually for Cahn, and with property taxes increasing from 10 percent to 20 percent in recent years, he can’t afford to take another hit.

“I don’t think that it’s fair that this select number of properties should be taxed for [the High Line],” he said, adding that when his warehouse was landmarked and its designation converted from manufacturing to commercial, he lost the ability to advertise on the building, costing him revenue. “They should tax everyone,” he said. “They should take it out of the general fund.”

Cahn explained that owners of residential buildings can simply pass the tax onto tenants, whereas in his situation, he’s the only tenant.

“In this economy,” he said, “this is ridiculous.”

The improvement district also includes a large swath of West Chelsea’s Gallery District, with many galleries located in the 9-cent subdistrict west of 10th Ave. Mack, an art critic, feared that any additional charges levied against galleries would make the area more prohibitive to arts tenants.

“The critical mass of galleries in Chelsea is something that is very important to New York’s identity as a creative center,” he explained, noting that the proposal hasn’t addressed the tax’s effect on the arts community. “It’s just another nail in the coffin of something that is very vibrant.”

Tara Reddi, director of the Marlborough Gallery, on W. 25th St., said that not one of the gallerists she spoke to had been made aware of the proposal. As board president of the Chelsea Arts Tower, the condo building that houses her gallery, Reddi added that even the building’s managing agent had not heard of the plan.

“There is a correct way of informing a district, and I have never seen any proof of this at all. And our gallery is open,” Reddi said, noting the timing of the proposal’s announcement in the summer when many galleries are either closed or have limited access. “You’re asking a very small community to support in perpetuity the High Line. It’s like telling people on the East Side and the West Side to support Central Park.”

As with Central Park, Hess and Mack said that general tax revenues and voluntary private contributions alone should finance the High Line.

“People feel like they’ve been kind of deceived,” Hess said, adding that she’s received e-mails from park donors who are upset at the idea of a mandatory tax.

“I think it should be people’s choice,” she continued. “I prefer to give to a soup kitchen than pay for artfully arranged grass.”

As for the argument that the High Line will only raise property values for those in the district, Mack didn’t find it a compelling enough selling point.

“The greatest value in my life is not that the value of my property goes up,” he said. “There are other things that I’m concerned about — one of them is diversity.”

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_328/highlineplans.html

George Kaplan

August 16th, 2009, 06:27 PM

Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-high1221,0,1823477.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines

Mayor To Save Westside Rail Line
By Curtis L. Taylor
December 20, 2002, 10:02 PM EST

In a major shift from the previous administration, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken legal action to save the 1.45-mile abandoned High Line rail on Manhattan’s West Side, preserving the right to possibly build a unique, elevated public park, officials said.

The city filed a certificate of interim trail use this week with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, an important early step in preserving the rail line for future development that could include residential housing and a large, yet-to-be-determined public space, according to Daniel Doctoroff, deputy major for economic development and rebuilding.

“Our intent is to create an amenity onto the High Line and build around it residential developments while at the same time preserving the essential character of the neighborhood,” he said.

Doctoroff characterized the court action as an important early step in a complicated process.

“This is not a done deal,” Doctoroff said. “We still have to reach an agreement with the High Line.”

The city’s emerging plan appears to allow the option to tear down the northern section of the rail line between 30th and 34th streets, in case a stadium needs to be built on the site for the 2012 Olympics.

Still, the city’s aggressive position to save the abandoned rail line running from 34th Street to West 14th Street, knifing through Ninth and Tenth avenues, is a decided shift from the Giuliani administration, which had taken legal steps to demolish the site, officials said.

Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Upper East Side), who has openly championed the project, lauded the Bloomberg administration’s actions.

Miller said the idea was to create “an exciting public space and elevated park” for all New Yorkers to enjoy, mirroring the world-renowned in Paris. The estimated $60 million price tag would be funded through a combination of federal, city and state dollars, he said.

Miller said there was national precedent for reclaiming unused rail lines, citing the federally funded “Rails to Trails” program. Miller said maintaining the integrity of the “right of way space” was important because the large tract of land could prove important in seeking transportation alternatives.

Offices for the rail company, CSX, which owns the rail line were closed Friday evening and an official couldn’t be reached for comment.

The community-based Friends for the High Line, along with Miller, have led the fight to preserve the land to build the elevated park. Miller described the abandoned rail line as offering “some of the most unique views in all of Manhattan.”

I recall nice walks from doings at the Javits Center way down to a some nice eateries deep in the heart of Chelsea. My take on this is that the old tracks are a great art object in itself. But it's going to take a ton of horsing around to make the overhead walkable. And then it will be just one more emasculated pretty/pretty walk. So leave it already.
:confused:

lofter1

August 16th, 2009, 07:22 PM

Leave it? It's 1/3 complete and has been open for 2 months.

Emasculated? Flowers and stuff? They get more action and spread more seed than most of us.

stache

August 16th, 2009, 09:13 PM

The bees have their own hankie code.

meesalikeu

August 17th, 2009, 05:20 AM

george, you got some reading up and some visiting to do. not only is the first section of the highline park opened, the next middle section will open next year. its the northern third section we're all worried about, it may get tampered with for railyards development. that would be a tragedy as it winds down to the ground right at the door of the javits...and that means one day when you're at a convention there you'll have a much nicer walk down to chelsea than 11th avenue!

here ya go start here:

http://www.thehighline.org/

Merry

August 22nd, 2009, 01:17 AM

08.21.2009

High Line Backs Down

A proposed tax of local businesses and residents to help fund the High Line has been withdrawn.

http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/image/HighLineWindow.jpg
The High Line, seen from the Standard Hotel, one of hundreds of properties that faced a potential tax to help fund the park.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin-seymour/3834995108/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin-seymour/sets/72157619702610344/

Friends of the High Line has withdrawn its proposal to fund park upkeep with an assessment on nearby buildings that it would have grouped as a "High Line Improvement District." Cofounder Robert Hammond told AN that to do otherwise would have violated the group's commitment to civic responsibility after many residents balked at the idea.

"Most of the objection was coming from residents, mostly east of Tenth Avenue," Hammond said. "I think people, even though the assessment was very small, felt they didn't want to be assessed."

The group had proposed a "High Line Improvement District" that would, like similar cordons around Union Square or Times Square, fund park maintenance through a surtax on property values in the area. The proposal entailed a fee on residential buildings, though, where the more common approach taxes only commercial properties with higher cashflow. Hammond suggested that residents, despite the cachet of the High Line, stopped short of considering themselves bound to it.

The group has been struggling to come up with the $3.5 million it needs to operate the park in addition to $1 million already provided by the city, especially as fundraising dries up during the down economy. The business improvement district plan was expected to generate upwards of $1 million for the park.

Hammond said he and his colleagues would now try to capitalize on whatever local goodwill they can find. "We're going to do a corporate membership program, we've expanded our regular membership program and we're looking at how we can cut costs," he said.

And he did not rule out reintroducing the idea of a tax district. "The majority of the people liked the idea, we could have gotten this through," he said. "But we don't want to be in a protracted argument with the community."

Alec Appelbaum

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=3772

ablarc

August 22nd, 2009, 10:34 AM

"The majority of the people liked the idea, we could have gotten this through," he said. "But we don't want to be in a protracted argument with the community."
So it wasn't really the community; it was a minority of the community. Why knuckle under to a minority of the community?

Is that like the prez knuckling under to the minority on health care?

Lotsa knuckling under going on all 'round to those making angry noise. Now that's making use of the media.

Jasonik

August 23rd, 2009, 10:21 AM

But isn't majoritarianism necessarily boorish philistinism?

"...it is always from a minority acting in ways different from what the majority would prescribe that the majority in the end learns to do better."

~ F.A. Hayek (http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae5_3_3.pdf)

MidtownGuy

August 23rd, 2009, 12:44 PM

"necessarily", no. Often, probably.

econ_tim

August 25th, 2009, 02:13 PM

With Success of High Line, Rewards for Co-Founder

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/nyregion/26hiline.html

MidtownGuy

August 25th, 2009, 06:01 PM

And here I thought they couldn't afford a couple of $17/hour guards to keep the place open a few hours longer at night.

Turns out Hammond is cleaning up.

This is great:

"The High Line said that Mr. Hammond’s compensation stems from the challenges of operating a park perched roughly 30 feet in the air with a fire code capacity, managing major fund-raising campaigns and working with the city to oversee the design and construction of the High Line, among other duties."

Oh, he is so personally challenged by that 30 ft elevation! It makes the job so much harder!
I guess if it was 15 feet, he would only need $125,000/year instead of 250,000 big ones! :rolleyes:
And I bet he spent long sleepless nights poring over the design specs to make sure every shasta daisy was planted where he personally approved.:rolleyes:

Over a million bucks earned in a few years from a "non-profit". Cool deal.

Merry

August 28th, 2009, 08:39 AM

High Line Deleted Scenes: Partial Nudity Always Planned!

August 27, 2009, by Joey

http://curbed.com/uploads/2009_8_highlinebikini.jpg
[Rendering by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro.]

As faux controversy (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/08/24/standard_hotel_strip_show_too_hot_for_the_high_lin e.php) has swirled surrounding the naked people (and the things they do while naked) seen in the windows of the Standard Hotel from the High Line, the High Line Blog has remained silent on the topic. But that doesn't mean the people behind the park-in-the-sky aren't interested in showing a little skin. This week the New Yorker published a photo of bikini babes taking in some sun on the High Line's loungers-on-wheels, and in response the High Line Blog posted a never-before-seen early rendering of the "Sundeck" feature. While the real thing turned out quite different, the blog notes, "Some things, though, have not changed. Front and center, the bikini-clad babe-rendering serves as a harbinger of sunbathers to come." So where's the guy going to town on himself in a nearby window?

Even The New Yorker Knows The High Line is a Babe Magnet (http://blog.thehighline.org/2009/08/27/even-the-new-yorker-knows-the-high-line-is-a-babe-magnet/) [High Line Blog]
High Line coverage (http://www.curbed.com/tags/high-line) [Curbed]

lofter1

August 28th, 2009, 11:25 AM

From the New Yorker (08.31.09); photo by Brian Finke ...

*

MidtownGuy

August 28th, 2009, 11:54 AM

The "water feature" turned out to be a big disappointment.
How do those people bake themselves in the sun on those wood chairs without a proper way to cool themselves with water? I wouldn't last 15 minutes.

Maybe they should just put out a garden hose.

stache

August 28th, 2009, 01:07 PM

The water feature was a block over at the Spike! :D

londonlawyer

August 29th, 2009, 05:00 AM

From the New Yorker (08.31.09); photo by Brain Finke ...

*

I saw some caliente chicas when I went to the High Line. This is a great spot.

stache

September 9th, 2009, 04:28 AM

The flowers are becoming more subdued, but I saw another industrious bumblebee today. :cool:

Merry

September 9th, 2009, 09:12 AM

See article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/nyregion/06album.html) for 2005/2009 photo comparison.

Up Over Chelsea, Something Saved, Something Lost

I WALKED on the High Line (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/high_line_nyc/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) for the first time on a drizzling afternoon in July 2005. I was worried about being caught by the police as I passed over what was once an elevated freight railroad, abandoned 25 years before, but my fears were forgotten once I squeezed through a small opening in a sheet-metal fence and entered the High Line proper, threading its way down through Chelsea.

The tracks and sleepers were still in place. The grass and weeds grew higher than my head, and I saw that someone had cleared a plot among them and planted a little vegetable garden. Smashed beer bottles and the occasional crack pipe crunched underfoot. The old covered loading bays that cut into the buildings had become guerrilla art galleries, crammed with graffiti murals by some of New York’s legends, and in one case, an illegal iron installation welded to a steel beam.

I did not see anyone else up there that day. The noise and hustle below were mostly muted. If the city were ever abandoned, I imagined, this was how it might look.

Night was falling, and the drizzle had become rain. I found cover in one of the loading bays, just south of 14th Street. The isolated feeling I loved so much suddenly became overwhelming, and I swore I heard someone moving around in a recessed, darkened corner. I got spooked and left.

Four years later, almost to the day, I returned to the High Line, now a refined urban park (http://www.thehighline.org/). Appropriately, it was a perfect sunny day. I held my camera in the same spots, and saw a landscape transformed. It was very pleasant, but I felt as though something had been lost.

The graffiti murals have been cleaned off the walls. The iron sculpture was dismantled to give a better view of Spencer Finch’s public art project (http://blog.thehighline.org/2009/05/24/spencer-finch-piece-installed-on-the-high-line/); his colored windows are pretty, but feel spineless and manufactured compared with the raw, unsanctioned work that used to be there. Walking the manicured paths, I could no longer bring myself to imagine the city in a different age. I found myself wishing that the High Line had never been touched.

A friend who usually shares my sense of nostalgia for all things Old New York pointed out that the High Line was seen as dead space by billionaire developers who wanted to demolish it.

We are lucky to have it at all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/nyregion/06album.html

Derek2k3

September 12th, 2009, 03:32 PM

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2616/3891730766_c92282e779_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2595/3888611352_1de1b54994_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3475/3887815209_2cc4fe2647_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3504/3890938165_256cb9365a_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2590/3888763818_a8990031e0_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2437/3887817019_c917996947_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2660/3885582955_00a1f84f9e_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3484/3891738680_2c4268db71_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2436/3890951703_b4333ca01e_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2534/3891733284_b4198dc46b_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2555/3891729650_66ac4f8277_b.jpg
beau-dog (http://www.flickr.com/photos/happybeau/page2/)

ablarc

September 12th, 2009, 07:14 PM

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3475/3887815209_2cc4fe2647_b.jpg
Cars on the left, trucks on the right. How come?

meesalikeu

September 13th, 2009, 10:15 PM

^ the right side is the chelsea market. those trucks are mostly for the (excellent) produce market inside, ronnybrook and others. they have a lock on that side of the street and are always there.

excellent night shots, wow!

kz1000ps

September 14th, 2009, 01:59 AM

9/13, from one end to the other:

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/6672/img0727h.jpg

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6431/img0729y.jpg

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/692/img0731ik.jpg

The southern terminus:

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4392/img0732x.jpg

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/6985/img0733t.jpg

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/8379/img0735e.jpg

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2629/img0737yb.jpg

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6995/img0742t.jpg

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3510/img0743md.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4900/img0744fn.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/9484/img0745gm.jpg

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7298/img0747f.jpg

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9374/img0750nj.jpg

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/2940/img0751f.jpg

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/5021/img0752h.jpg

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/3417/img0754o.jpg

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/8625/img0759.jpg

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/3782/img0760fn.jpg

^ suddenly, I'm hungry for carrots.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/2005/img0769xy.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6427/img0772zh.jpg

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/8843/img0773p.jpg

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8346/img0776tm.jpg

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5151/img0779lh.jpg

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/696/img0781.jpg

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8366/img0782c.jpg

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/5287/img0787.jpg

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/5426/img0788.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/3051/img0797cu.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/6874/img0800h.jpg

A couple thoughts from my second visit: the stairs at the northern end are waaaaaaay too narrow (did someone mention this before?). It's tight having two people walk by eachother, and heaven forbid anyone stops to take a pic!

Also, I tripped twice over the subtle beveling they do at the edges of the concrete planks (note: I'm not particularly prone to clumsiness), and I witnessed it happen to someone else also. They're too subtle; if the light isn't high constrast-y, your chances of missing the raised edges are pretty good.

Merry

September 14th, 2009, 06:30 AM

Marvelous tour, kz :).

I'm wondering what will happen to the plants during winter?

meesalikeu

September 16th, 2009, 06:20 PM

^ same thing that happened to them when it was undeveloped i guess?

yeah more great shots. nice. really captures a typical sunny day up there.

anyone know what the projected finish date is for the highline building (it's the other one spanning over the highline at w14th st)? seems like slow going there recently.

Merry

September 20th, 2009, 12:51 AM

No cover, no minimum at the High Line

Voyeurism in New York surged after photos of naked guests at a hotel over the park hit the Web.

By GERALDINE BAUM, Los Angeles Times

Two couples, both from out of town, linger on the same park bench, gazing up at gauzy curtains in the windows of a 19-story hotel. They don't know each other, but there they are, on a sunny Labor Day afternoon, hoping to steal a glimpse of, well, for lack of a more delicate way to put it, naked people.

Voyeurism became New York's hot attraction this summer, after guests were photographed in the buff prancing about, even having sex, in front of floor-to-ceiling windows at the Standard hotel in the hip Meatpacking District.

The shenanigans unfolded as a result of a series of unintended circumstances. Start with the opening of the High Line Park, built on abandoned railroad tracks three stories above the street. Add a swank hotel, hoisted by massive pylons that straddle the High Line. Then bring on the combustible element: New Yorkers and tourists, who flocked to see the city's newest additions. As they walked the High Line, they quickly realized there was more to see than they could have dared to hope. With that, the High Line became a stage-set, as well as a destination.

An Internet sensation

All summer, images of the Standard's bawdy guests spread like cyber wildfire, and the management seemed to relish the attention, even encouraging new arrivals to go ahead and "just have fun!" The hotel's blog, briefly, linked to photos of two unclothed women in provocative positions.

This 21st century urban voyeurism is the next logical step in a society that has been peeping and poking into private lives, with all of us participating -- on reality TV, through social networking and in confessional interviews and memoirs. It's what brought Bob and Beverly Taylor of Virginia, and Mike Louvascio and his girlfriend, Marilyn, from Long Island to share that bench on the High Line.

"We're nudists," says Bob, 55, introducing himself. The Taylors say that they often vacation in the big city, but this time the much-publicized peep show at the Standard is at the top of their to-do list. "This was our next cool thing to see," says Beverly, 49.

Louvascio, 64, and Marilyn, who prefers to not reveal her age or last name, are here for the shopping. Well, that's what drew Marilyn. Mike admits he has little interest in the area's designer boutiques that once were warehouses stacked with bloody animal carcasses.

"I'd rather be hunting," he says of his favorite sport, shooting deer with bow and arrow. But "seeing naked people," he explains, "is something to do."

Voyeurism is a part of everyday life here. Who hasn't made up a story about a neighbor on the next balcony who suns herself on summer weekends?

Peering, leering, observing -- it has long been the quintessence of city life.

In the 19th century, French poet Charles Baudelaire defined the spirit of the "flaneur," or the urban stroller, who saunters aimlessly with nothing more to do than experience the city. Alfred Hitchcock's film "Rear Window" portrayed a detached spectator armed with binoculars and raised the ethics of such spying.

Opened in June, the High Line floats for 1.5 miles along the western edge of Manhattan. Familiar with the eagle's view and the street view, New Yorkers, like birds on a new branch, suddenly are waist-high to buildings.

It's not just cheap thrills that mesmerize. From its rare perch, the park threads among old buildings and over parking lots from Gansevoort to W. 20th Street and eventually will extend to 34th street.

A few days before the start of New York Fashion Week, designer Diane von Furstenberg flees her studio for her public/private garden, the High Line.

The millions that she and her mogul husband, Barry Diller, donated in 2005 served as seed money to build the park. They later gave $10 million more. But it is not the naked frolickers who interest von Furstenberg.

Just not her thing

"It's a very nice crowd," she notes, smiling at two men canoodling on a bench. "There's so much to do, so beautiful to have the sunset on the West Side at this time of day."

"I am totally not a voyeur," she says. "My son gave me for Christmas binoculars, very nice, but the truth is, I don't care. I don't look at other windows. I look at the sky, I look at the clouds, I look at the High Line. ... I'm not stopping at windows." Her bathtub is visible to guests in the Standard or from that bench where Bob and Beverly Taylor and Mike Louvascio and Marilyn are stationed.

But Von Furstenberg always draws the curtains.

"But why aren't you staying there yourselves, and doing your [nudist] thing?" Marilyn asks the Taylors.

"It's too expensive for us to stay there," says Beverly, quoting rates of as much as $705 a night. But if they could afford it, they would take a room and undress for all to see, Bob says. But not for the excitement that some get from exhibitionism: "For us," he says, "it's about freedom."

Marilyn looks skeptical. "Those people," she says, eyeing a 10th-floor hotel guest lounging in her underwear on a bed with the curtains open, "are interested in performing. They get off on it."

http://www.startribune.com/nation/59874917.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

scumonkey

October 4th, 2009, 04:22 PM

Today was the first day since my accident,
that I felt strong enough to walk down to the highline,
and get a look for myself...
So crowded I got turned away
(I'm still not strong enough to stand in l
long lines)!
:(
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb276/scumonkey/untitled-9.jpg

stache

October 4th, 2009, 06:38 PM

Try again on a weekday. No problem. At least it was a beautiful day to be outdoors -

Merry

October 20th, 2009, 06:59 AM

Major Milestone for the High Line's Preservation at the Rail Yards

http://www.thehighline.org/sites/files/images/maclean.jpg

We just received word of an exciting development at the West Side Rail Yards. The Department of City Planning has announced that the City will initiate the process to acquire the High Line above 30th Street.

The City's decision to acquire the High Line is a major step towards achieving our ultimate goals: full preservation of the historic structure north of 30th Street, including the 10th Avenue Spur, and completion of the High Line project all the way to 34th Street.

To understand the importance of this advance, it's helpful to remember that the City's 2005 acquisition of the High Line south of 30th Street was a crucial step in the preservation of that section. Similarly, we expect the City's acquisition of the rail yards section to lead ultimately to park construction on the northern end of the High Line.

Read the full press release (http://www.thehighline.org/pdf/fhl_rail_yards_acquisition_101909.pdf)

Thank you for all your work in helping us get this far. This would have never happened without the tireless efforts of our High Line supporters. When the current planning process for the rail yards began over three years ago, many believed that the chances of preserving the High Line were slim to none. You came out to countless public review sessions, developer presentations, and City Council hearings, spoke out, and wrote letters of support. Though there is still much work to be done before the High Line's future is secure at the rail yards, this announcement is a true victory for the High Line.

Special thanks also go to the Department of City Planning, especially Chair Amanda Burden, who has long recognized the value of the High Line to the rail yards site, to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose leadership reversed the City policy to demolish the entire High Line in 2002, to the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Christine Quinn, who has been at the forefront of this advocacy campaign, to United States Representative Jerrold Nadler, who has worked towards the High Line's preservation at the rail yards for decades, to Borough President Scott Stringer, State Senator Tom Duane, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, and all of our partners at Community Board 4 and Hudson Yards Community Advisory Committee. Without the support of our elected and government leaders, the High Line's preservation at the rail yards would be an impossible dream. Thanks also to the Related Companies, the site's developer, for their recognition of the High Line's value and their work to integrate it into their plans for the site.

The process that begins with this announcement, and ends in City acquisition of the High Line above 30th Street, will likely take several months. Along the way, there will be a number of opportunities for public comment, and we will be urging our supporters to once again show up to support the High Line. You will be hearing from us in the coming weeks about these next steps. We are confident that with your continued support, our hard work will result in the full preservation of this iconic part of New York City's industrial past.

http://www.thehighline.org/news/2009/10/20/major-milestone-for-the-high-lines-preservation-at-the-rail-yards

meesalikeu

October 20th, 2009, 08:33 AM

yeah i got that and was going to post it too.

its not over by any means good news at last that the city will be in control instead of private developers!

Merry

October 21st, 2009, 06:49 AM

Removal of Graffiti Along High Line Vexes Some

By Sarah Maslin Nir

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/10/19/nyregion/highline-480.jpg
Seth Carnes Graffiti, left, has been cleaned up in many cases since the completion of the High Line, right.
Seth Carnes, an artist, has been documenting the process, and he is critical of it.

Up on the High Line (http://www.thehighline.org/), the city’s newest park, set on a formerly abandoned elevated railroad line, the site’s gritty history gets a passing reference: Slats underfoot conjure the railroad ties that once sat quietly rotting under wild weeds up here.

But a more obvious sign of the edifice’s derelict past — the graffiti once splashed across the building walls that hem in the track — has been almost completely erased. And what is left of that urban art, or urban blight, depending on whom one asks, is likely to be scrubbed away, a move that has divided some New Yorkers over the place grime has in the city’s landscape.

The city identified about 20 buildings along the entire High Line as candidates for graffiti removal and reached out to their owners back in October 2008, according to Evelyn Erskine, a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office. Under legislation passed in September intended to speed up cleanup, the city’s Graffiti Free NYC (http://www.nyc.gov/html/cau/html/qol/anti_graffiti.shtml) program, which identifies and removes graffiti, contacts people whose buildings have been defaced. If the owners do not object, the city will remove the paint free of charge, unless the building owners ask to do it themselves or tell the city they would like the scrawl to stay. When graffiti is on private property, as it is on the buildings abutting the High Line, the city cannot force a cleanup, Ms. Erskine says.

So far, 18 of the buildings have permitted the city to scrub them clean — nine of which have already had the work completed. The remaining buildings are mostly along the unfinished second half of the track, where park construction is still under way. The move has been lamented in the graffiti blogosphere and chronicled in places like iheart.org (http://www.iheart.org/iheartpublic003.html), the Web site of Seth Carnes, an artist whose 2008 white, red and black painting of the words “i heart” on a patch of brick wall above the line near 13th Street was covered over with what he writes is “a battleship gray layer of paint” this past spring.

“Certainly when I saw the drab gray paint over it, it was a tragic moment,” though not entirely unexpected, Mr. Carnes said. “Part of the act of the street art-form is what goes onto a wall is covered or changes. But I think a solid gray coat of paint over what used to be a nice textured brick wall with some good graffiti over it is not an improvement.”

Friends of the High Line (http://www.thehighline.org/), the organization behind the park’s creation and operation, declined to comment on the topic.

Still not yet “buffed,” as graffiti proponents term the cleaning procedure, are tags and designs alongside the unfinished stretch of the park. Some are by celebrities of the underground, like the elusive artist “Revs,” and “Sacer,” the label used by the indie artist Dash Snow (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/dash_snow/index.html), who died of a drug overdose last summer. Revs (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/arts/design/18revs.html), who keeps his true identity secret, spent the ’90s plastering the city with “rollers,” giant block type versions of his nickname executed with house paint and roller brushes on long handles.

“Not everybody feels that it is art,” says Dorothea Basile, the director and founder of ARTime (http://www.artimeny.com/?page_id=2), an arts education organization, who has taught classes and leads walking tours on the High Line about contemporary and other art. For some people, the answer to whether it should stay hinges on whether the markings are art or an eyesore. “The idea of preserving something that people don’t feel that it’s art is very challenging,” Ms. Basile says.

Both Ms. Basile and Mr. Carnes point out that many of the Chelsea galleries beneath the High Line’s shadow, like Phillips de Pury & Company, often exhibit and sell the work of graffiti artists, sometimes for hefty sums.

“A lot of people simply don’t like graffiti — to them, it’s just litter, basically,” says Peter Sutherland, a photographer whose book of portraits of stars of the graffiti galaxy, “Autograf,” features a forward written by Revs. But “there’s people that consider graffiti like a lot of the great music that’s known to come out of New York; the best kind of bits of culture we’ve produced here in the past 25 years.”

To Mr. Sutherland, the art value of the rollers, “fill-ins” or “throw-ups,” as the variety of tags are called, is somewhat beside the point. “It’s like a visual cue as to the history of the High Line when it was closed down,” he says. “Other than, like, weeds overgrowing, those are the only kind of little tidbits that tell you what was going on there, till whenever it stopped functioning.”

“It speaks to the history of what this site was,” Ms. Basile says. “Part of what I think is so great about the High Line is I feel like there has been a real thoughtfulness in terms of acknowledging its artificialness, and at the same time wanting to take in its past history.”

Nonetheless, the clock is still ticking for the graffiti on the nine remaining facades. “Very similar to the debate about whether or not it’s art, is whether or not it should be preserved,” Mr. Sutherland says. “It’s part of what makes graffiti interesting, the controversial side of it.”

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/removal-of-graffiti-along-high-line-vexes-some/

Merry

October 22nd, 2009, 07:25 AM

High Line Construction Chronicles: Mind the Gap

October 21, 2009, by Joey

http://curbed.com/uploads/2009_10_highlinestairs.jpg

The potential Phase III of the High Line got some good news yesterday, when word leaked (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/10/19/tip_of_the_high_line_on_the_path_to_salvation.php) that the city will soon make moves to acquire and, perhaps, preserve the northern portion of the elevated rail bed. But what's new with Phase II, the 10-block portion starting at 20th Street that's scheduled for a 2010 debut? Plenty! Check out these spy shots sent from high above Tenth Avenue and 23rd Street, where a hole has been cut out of the High Line to clear some space for a new staircase, of which future HL23 (http://www.curbed.com/tags/hl23) residents will apparently have a great view. Meanwhile, Chicago may get its own High Line-style train tracks makeover, called the Bloomingdale Trail (http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=3938). Followers.

High Line coverage (http://www.curbed.com/tags/high-line) [Curbed]

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/10/21/high_line_construction_chronicles_mind_the_gap.php

scumonkey

November 2nd, 2009, 08:33 PM

Costly 'trips' on High Line

By JAMES FANELLI and RICH CALDER
Last Updated: 5:18 AM, November 1, 2009
Posted: 2:45 AM, November 1, 2009
Money had better grow on trees in the High Line Park, because the city's newest greenway is also its latest liability.
Less than five months old, the elevated promenade has become a major stumbling block. Pedestrians are tripping over raised concrete slabs meant to resemble train rails, and one has even filed a $2 million claim against the city.
Paula Shapiro, 66, said she broke her left ankle during an evening stroll along the path on June 21, two weeks after it opened, according to court papers.
The Gramercy Park resident was 246 feet north of the park's Gansevoort Street entrance when she tripped near a median of trees and flowers surrounded by "raised, uneven, depressed decorative concrete," her claim states.

And while Shapiro is the first pedestrian-turned-plaintiff at the $172 million park, she is not the first to fall, her lawyer said.
"She was told there had been accidents before," Jeffrey Pomerantz told The Post.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/costly_trips_on_high_line_Cp0P2mgCszMhB3VtNvwzbL#i xzz0VkgFqZvh

lofter1

November 2nd, 2009, 09:01 PM

That concrete is not just "decorative." The raised edges / ends on the HL walkways were designed that way to make the paths ADA compliant & friendlier for disabled folks. Those edges let the blind know where the path drops down to the planting area, and they also create a stopper for wheelchairs so they don't go off the path. The bumps are there to say: "Don't walk here."

The one area that might raise some problem is around the "water feature" with the nearly invisible raised "rippled" concrete. But Ms. Shapiro fell down below the Standard Hotel -- maybe she was checking out the action up above and not watching where she was going ...

Ninjahedge

November 3rd, 2009, 10:04 AM

I hate this crap.

You should not be able to sue the city for tripping unless an official stuck their leg out at you while you were not looking.

Some of these cases need to be examined and determined if they are indeed because of a negligent sdesign/construction or frivolous.

Maybe a donation box needs to be made for collection of funds for the legal defense of the High Line.

ZippyTheChimp

November 3rd, 2009, 11:25 AM

The only design problem that I can think of is the wooden bench that is anchored on one side by a concrete form that flows up out of the slats. At certain angles, it becomes sort of camouflaged with the ground.

The rest seems to be look where you're going, but that no longer applies.

NYatKNIGHT

November 3rd, 2009, 11:33 AM

I wish there were a verdict: nobody should pay for your clumsiness. Next!

ZippyTheChimp

November 3rd, 2009, 12:00 PM

Judge

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bEeoqPfDBLw/RsQhO3zL8wI/AAAAAAAAAPY/rnL5kxnBOzM/s320/soupnazi.jpg

"No High Line for you. One year."

Ninjahedge

November 3rd, 2009, 12:11 PM

Park-Nazi!

Merry

November 7th, 2009, 02:46 AM

Marvelous tour, kz :).

I'm wondering what will happen to the plants during winter?

Winter-Proofing the High Line

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Auzelle Epeneter
http://friendsofthehighline.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/kaspar-watering2.jpg?w=460&h=335
High Line gardener Kaspar Wittlinger watering the grasses just south of the Standard Hotel

Despite the mild weather so far this season, winter is on its way. Most of the above-ground vegetation on the High Line will lie dormant in the freezing weather (http://blog.thehighline.org/2008/02/05/brown-is-also-a-color-planting-designer-piet-oudolf-accepts-death/), but in order to ensure that plants survive into the spring, measures must be taken to protect the roots still living beneath the surface.

After the first freeze, the water will be turned off on the High Line in order to protect the pipes. The soil, too, will harden and no longer absorb moisture. So while the delicate, dried stalks and leaves don’t require watering now, the gardeners continue to irrigate their roots to provide protection.

The gusts that blow off the Hudson River, just blocks (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3367/3250432453_8abd6d8ae0_b.jpg) from the High Line, will also pose a challenge to the plants this winter. “People don’t realize that wind is dry,” gardener Kaspar Wittlinger tells me, “It sucks moisture out of the soil.” He says woody plants in particular are susceptible to damage–the bark can crack open, similar to the way unprotected skin reacts to icy winds.

http://blog.thehighline.org/2009/11/06/winter-proofing-the-high-line/

meesalikeu

November 8th, 2009, 09:07 PM

i took these this morning -- looking good up there this fall! :)

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200963.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200964.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200941.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200945.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200948.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200959.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200960.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200942.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200946.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200955.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200958.jpg

last up is the newly opened 14th street elevator

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/P1200940.jpg

lofter1

November 8th, 2009, 09:27 PM

The High Line Blog has November Bloom (http://blog.thehighline.org/2009/11/03/november-blooms/) info.

Merry

November 9th, 2009, 05:39 AM

Excellent photos, meesa :).

It's nice to have a record of what the HL will look like in the different seasons.

Must they pollute the scene with those ads? :rolleyes:

Merry

November 9th, 2009, 06:26 AM

New York's hanging gardens

Once a disused railroad that ran 30 feet above the New York streets, the High Line has been transformed into an extraordinary urban park.

The autumn bloom on the High Line, Manhattan's new and most radically engineered park, rages gold and green in the sun. The park, half of which opened to the public in June this year, lies, absurdly, 30ft above the street on an iron-bound, 22-block stretch of elevated 1930s freight railbed that slices through the Lower West Side. Originally built because the short-haul freight trains were killing too many insufficiently agile New Yorkers – Lower Tenth Avenue was called Death Avenue in 1930 – the rail runs generally north/south from the huge 30th Street freight terminus to the cluster of 19th-century warehouses in the Meatpacking District, around Gansevoort Street. The last train made the short commercial hop down the rails in 1980, delivering to one of the meatyard warehouses that have sidings running into their second floors. It must have been close to Thanksgiving Day: the payload was three boxcars of frozen turkeys.

Twenty-nine years on, the railbed has been reincarnated as New York City's flaneur mile, drawing up to 25,000 visitors a day to its spectacular steel-framed planting beds. Its current northern entry at 20th Street and Tenth Avenue opens on to a three-block-long section called the Chelsea Grasslands, after the New York neighbourhood that was itself named after the garden-rich London borough.

Dutch master horticulturalist Piet Oudolf, called in to design the High Line's plantings four years ago, has painted the Grasslands in his trademark wild-prairie palette – swathes of meadow sage, loosestrife, three sorts of burnet, stonecrop, prairie dropseed, switchgrass, ironweed, wild quinine, prairie dock, purple love grass and 16 other species. Glorious at this time of year are the black-eyed susans, the deep-purple "Gipsy Queen" clematis, the "Sundown" echinacea and the spiky, almost extraterrestrial eryngium, or rattlesnake master, whose bloom heads have turned black.

"Piet's particularly good at the sequencing, or what we might call the rhythm of the plantings," says Patrick Cullina, the vice president for horticulture at the Friends of the High Line, the public/private consortium that built and manages the park with the City of New York's Parks Department. "He's also captured micro-seasons, as with the asters, which are blooming now, or with other patterns of blooms and hibernation that he's orchestrated to occur within days of each other. The switchgrass turns gold, the autumn moor grass will turn silver and its top foliage gold, and your eye can catch that silver and the other patterns as they repeat."

This is Oudolf's signature, a meticulous but layered-as-God-would-strew-it planting algorithm that he's brought to the High Line. His beds are both radical and conservative: radical in that one does not expect them where they are, but conservative in that they look natural where they are, because they've been tailored to the hostile urban conditions under which they thrive. Forty per cent of the species Oudolf put on the High Line were already there, dropped by birds and blown by the winds on to the railbed during its derelict years. Sustainable may be an overused adjective, but Oudolf embraces the notion, in that what was put there by nature was, by definition, sustained.

"Perhaps we can call what I work in layers of patterns," says Oudolf, at his home in Hummelo, the Netherlands, in the week before departing for a horticultural conference in Berlin. "It's about finding species and understanding the conditions where they might be native – for instance, a few years ago I took a long drive around the American prairies. And some of these conditions might also be similar to the conditions atop a railroad such as the High Line. Of course with the High Line, as with all of nature, there's also a narrative: you move from grasslands, to trees and shrubs, back to grass, and then to woodlands at the southern end."

Because the massive black trestleworks and riveted balustrades are vintage 1930s, at street level the High Line exudes an air of heavy post-Industrial Age permanence. It looks like an airborne railhead in Leeds. But on the trestle the park unfolds itself to the visitor delicately, cinematically, as if the High Line is enveloping you in its own film about the future of New York City. One exits the forever-mad stream of midtown-bound truck and taxi traffic on Tenth Avenue, mounts three flights of steel stairs to the former railbed, then, framed by warehouses and by the Hudson River to the west, Oudolf's long grassy meadow unfolds south of 20th Street, washed by the light and the wind off the water. The Hudson is a mile wide in this stretch, so the experience approximates that of walking along the crest of a great dune above the ocean.

"There are just 14in to 20in of soil possible in most of the beds in the Grasslands, and most of these species grow in what gardeners would call junk," explains Cullina, the man charged with the overall maintenance of the park. "In other words, not high-fertility soil. On the High Line, they're in loam. When we were opening this section last spring, we'd push the plants with a little water to get them bedded in. We hand-water some, but in the Grasslands the species are mostly very tough and they're going to get what they get. The whole experiment is a testament to the power of drainage. Up here, the wind plays an enormous drying role. That's part of the point of Piet's choices. They have to be able to take it. It's a very 'prairie' feeling."

Bold as the High Line is, it's important to remember that New York – now happily receiving the many millions in taxes brought on by the real estate boom under, around and over the park – is the city that, for 23 years, let the High Line lay derelict. It was a rust-caked dragon's tail of black-iron urban blight, blotting out the sky and raking through the centre of blocks west of lower Tenth Avenue. The homeless lived under it; untenable buildings around it were razed and made into parking lots; weeds and trees later to be lovingly catalogued and replanted by Oudolf sprouted in the stone ballast under its railroad ties.

The point is that the High Line had no easy birth in any of its phases – in inception, design, or execution. First, the city fathers had to be persuaded by enough private economic momentum in the derelict neighbourhoods through which the High Line ran – in other words, enough risk-loving artists, gallerists, restaurateurs and boutique owners had to create a frisson of hipness and commerce – to even entertain the notion that building a park on the railbed might matter. In fruition, the process is best seen in the former warehouse and light industrial districts of Soho and Tribeca, now home to some of New York's priciest loft residences, shops and restaurants. Exactly this happened in the late 1990s in West Chelsea and the Meatpacking District. Then, in 1999, Chelsea residents Robert Hammond and Joshua David founded the Friends of the High Line, the advocacy organisation for the park's reclamation, and now its governing body.

Significantly, the Whitney Museum of American Art is building its downtown venue directly under the High Line at 17th Street. A further 10 blocks of High Line, from 20th up to its great westward bend over the railyards at 30th Street, have just undergone their engineering renovation and will open in late 2010. The city enabled this new construction with uncharacteristic alacrity, since the park had already proven its economic muscle with the real-estate frenzy engendered by the southern section. Surprisingly, given the park's success, the High Line's last quarter of a mile is under threat of being removed in favour of other development.

"We can call something like the High Line 'greening'," says James Corner, with just a whiff of disdain for the cliché. Corner was the leader of the 80-man High Line design team and the principal of the landscape architecture firm Field Operations. "But I think what we're seeing is a need in communities to take these industrial spaces – be they old ports or harbours, or transport infrastructure such as the High Line – and repurpose them, imagining new uses for how these places can be re-occupied."

Corner is British, a Mancunian whose New York-based firm has designed some 40 projects worldwide, including a 278-acre island off the Korean coast and a 4,500-acre, million-tree reforested park in Tennessee. Compared with those, the High Line has been a rather delicate job.

"There's a lot of engineering in the High Line that one doesn't see," he says.

"The paving system – the aggregate planks – had to be able to expand and retract so that they can keep their shape after a hard winter or a really hot summer. We had to have open joists so that we could drain and collect rainwater. Then there was Piet. I think it's safe to say that Piet very much does not do boxwood hedges and manicured lawns. He has literally thousands of species in his head, and he knows how to put them together for good compositional effect. He sort of dismembered the original meadow that was on the High Line and then put it back."

A hint about the kind of effort it takes to refashion the High Line as a garden can be had on a short walk up the unopened section, from 20th to 30th Streets. Here, the rails have been taken up and the screed-layer has been poured, to serve as the foundation for the plant beds. On this day, a team of workmen is yanking the last few rusted train rails from the 30th Street spur, chalking them with number and location. The last "original" – meaning derelict – plantings of ironweed and Johnson grass can be seen wafting in the wind on the third east-west section they have yet to rip up.

"The structure was robust, built as it was to carry two freight trains," says Nahyun Hwang, a High Line team lead project designer and member of Corner's Field Operations. "But obviously we pulled up, catalogued and saved the rails. We tried to save the timber and the stone ballast, but that had been so contaminated with asbestos and fuel that we were going to have to send it off to be specially washed. We decided: OK, we can live with new stone and new timber."

There are European projects with the impact of the High Line. The direct antecedent is Paris's Coulee Verte, a 19th century elevated railbed converted into a park in 1992. Of more recent note are the Quai Branly Museum's green wall, also in Paris, and the Eco Boulevard in Madrid. The re-imagining of European cities is accelerating, but because they are mostly laid out on plans fixed hundreds of years before New York's, the greening is more piecemeal.

"London has installed 230,000 square metres of green roofs in the last four years – that's more than New York or Chicago," says Dusty Gedge, president of the European Federation's Green Roof Association. "But most of it's private, so nobody sees it. We're starting, but I'm afraid we just haven't seen the political will."

One UK public project that will outweigh the High Line in scale is the Olympic Park, currently under construction for London's 2012 Games. It's a truism that the "get" of the Games often spurs city planners to architectural and horticultural heights, some of it bombastic and dictatorial – Beijing 2008 springs to mind. The brains trust for London's Olympic Park – James Hitchmough, Sheffield University professor of the department of landscape, and his colleagues – are anything but bombastic. Hitchmough is a leading proponent of the "meadow-ist" school of planting, preferring in his designs an even more naturally chaotic chaos than Oudolf.

"Piet and I are on a spectrum," Hitchmough explains. "Natural as they look, Piet's designs will still be carefully composed, whereas ours are more like nature on steroids. For the Olympic Park we'll use native English plants; there will be wetlands and woodlands and meadow. But we've been studying how to get species from all over the world into the park. At the moment we're looking at some South African tall grassland species. It is the Olympics, after all."

Two of the High Line's most striking architectural features are its rail spurs – bridges that lead from the main track into what were once warehouses.

The southern spur, at 15th Street, will soon be converted into a small children's playground, while the northern spur, which crosses 10th Avenue at 16th Street, is fully planted, glade-like and resplendent in October-blooming asters. One block south of the southern spur is the stage for the human fauna of the park, the sundeck, sponsored by film and shopping mogul Barry Diller and his designer wife, Diane von Furstenberg.

The sundeck lies directly over a busy petrol station at 10th Avenue and 14th Street, isolated from the streetside bustle. It's in this refuge, especially on sun-drenched autumn days, that New Yorkers retreat to read, reflect and – not least – flirt madly while in the garden's embrace. That the High Line's natural display is flat-out sexy has not been lost on anyone.

When the Standard hotel opened earlier in the year, some of its guests, in flagrante in their rooms, ripped back the curtains, turned on the lights and put on a show for the assembled parkgoers down on the High Line.

Leading a tour of the flowerbeds on a fine, warm autumn day, High Line vice president Patrick Cullina stops briefly next to the sundeck, which in this leftover bit of summer resembles a beach resort, with dozens of people splayed out over the chaise longues. "I had a family stop me the other day," he says. "They'd noticed the sound of the crickets. They said: 'How did you broadcast that recording? We couldn't figure out where the sound system was.' I had to tell them that the crickets were real. The crickets arrived, as all nature would when provided with proper habitat. That's the thing about greening a city. You think that nature is so far away, so difficult to get. But actually, if you provide it with the right conditions, nature is right there next to you, just waiting to happen."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/08/highline-new-york-garden-martin

Merry

December 10th, 2009, 06:27 AM

M&O’s New Worksman Trikes!

December 9, 2009 by Julia Boyer

http://friendsofthehighline.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/johnny-trikes-09.jpg?w=460&h=613
High Line Gardener Johnny Linville test-drives one of the new maintenance trikes.

Because of the High Line’s narrow pathways and relatively long distances, it can take a member of our maintenance and operations team 30 minutes to walk from the trailers at 20th Street, down to the Gansevoort end, and back. To save time and help with heavy loads, we’ve just added two High Line operations trikes, from Brooklyn-based Worksman (http://www.worksman.com/) (America’s oldest bicycle manufacturer), to our arsenal of operations tools. Pedal power will be a quick and environmentally friendly way to get from Point A to Point B — especially when Section 2 opens and doubles the length of the High Line.

http://friendsofthehighline.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/johnny-trike-back.jpg?w=460&h=613
Rear View: Johnny shows off the new High Line/Parks Maintenance decal and metal container.

http://blog.thehighline.org/2009/12/09/mos-new-worksman-trikes/

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/12/09/high_line_employees_get_to_break_high_line_rules.p hp

lofter1

December 10th, 2009, 10:31 AM

Aside from the time-saving benefit, those rubber-wheeled trikes could also prove to be quieter on the pathways than some of the plastic-wheeled tubs that park workers tow about. I'd assume the trikes have little finger operated bells to warn the walkers of the their approach.

Merry

December 16th, 2009, 06:37 AM

Section 2 Construction Update: Plank Delivery

December 14, 2009

by Katie Lorah

http://friendsofthehighline.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/sleepers1.jpg?w=460&h=345
The pathway system's substructure at 28th Street, ready to be planked.

Even on frigid days like last Friday, with icy winds whipping off the Hudson, our construction team is busy at work building the landscape on Section 2 (20th Street to 30th Street). For weeks now, the team has been laying the substructure for the High Line’s planking system. It’s a painstaking process which involves endless measuring and leveling with a series of tiny shims to make sure the path lies completely flat despite the imperfect surface of the underlying concrete.

Now, with the majority of the substructure (block columns and horizontal sleeper beams) in place, the team can begin to install the planks themselves. Friday morning, workers used a crane to lift parcels of the smooth concrete planks up from a flatbed truck to the surface of the High Line at 30th Street.

Section 2 will be stroll-ready in no time!

http://friendsofthehighline.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/truck1.jpg?w=460&h=345
Planks wait on a flatbed truck to be craned up to the High Line

http://blog.thehighline.org/2009/12/14/section-2-construction-update-plank-delivery/

lofter1

December 18th, 2009, 12:30 PM

HIGH LINE HALTS VENDOR CRACKDOWN

CURBED (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/12/18/high_line_halts_vendor_crackdown.php)
Friday, December 18, 2009
by Joey

If you've been to the High Line recently (brrrrr!) you've probably noticed frequently arrested (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/12/07/arrested_artist_plans_to_challenge_high_line_art_s elling_rules.php) artist/vendor Robert Lederman selling his wares in the Chelsea Market tunnel without a police officer in sight. That's because, >The Villager reports (http://thevillager.com/villager_346/parksreserses.html), the Parks Department has reversed course and assured Lederman he will not be arrested again for selling art up on the High Line. How long before the I♥NY t-shirts show up? Update: The NYC Park Advocates blog (http://awalkintheparknyc.blogspot.com/2009/12/parks-department-backs-down-on-high.html) says Lederman's lawsuit over his previous High Line arrests will go on. [Villager]

***

très artistique (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4ip45fBCljk/SysbU0I6CvI/AAAAAAAAAGc/CPnpErN1h28/s1600-h/Highline+12+12+09+b.jpg)

:(

Merry

December 22nd, 2009, 08:18 AM

Looks a tad different...

White Substance Discovered on the High Line

December 21, 2009, by Sara

http://cdn2.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2594/4202743739_03435313bd_o.jpg

http://cdn2.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/4041/4203501332_3c9cb6cc5f_o.jpg

http://cdn2.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2528/4203501444_b0d27e1bc1_o.jpg

http://cdn2.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/4041/4203501488_ec09696854_o.jpg

http://cdn2.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/4047/4202743927_bf366a5e68_o.jpg

http://cdn2.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/4008/4202743801_3de8b2b6a4_o.jpg

[Via i'mjustsayin/Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/imjustsayin/sets/72157622912660091/)] You're already completely over Blizzard '09 photos, we know. But have you seen snow...on the High Line?! Probably not, since the above photos come from a wintry wonderland of a Flickr set (http://www.flickr.com/photos/imjustsayin/sets/72157622912660091) that calls itself "the first-ever published photos of the High Line Park with snow on it." Adds a whole new dimension to staring at naked people up in the Standard.

· High Line in Snow (http://www.flickr.com/photos/imjustsayin/sets/72157622912660091/) [Flickr/i'mjustsayin]
· High Line coverage (http://curbed.com/tags/high-line) [Curbed]

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/12/21/strange_white_substance_discovered_on_the_high_lin e.php

meesalikeu

December 22nd, 2009, 06:23 PM

aah nice snow pics! thx, i haven't been up there in the snow yet, but i am looking forward to it.

tangent -- the highline's james corner field operations recently put forth some ideas to revitalize cleveland's public square, the first two are dull, but the third is interesting:
http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2009/12/reimagining_clevelands_public.html

Merry

January 20th, 2010, 01:33 AM

Line Spy Shots Show New Section Not Yet in Bloom

January 19, 2010, by Joey

http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2793/4288127142_55089f1c37_o.jpg

http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/2794/4288126978_19397870f5_o.jpg

http://cdn0.curbednetwork.com/cache/gallery/4056/4287385469_276e58056c_o.jpg

Section 2 of the High Line, running from 20th Street to 30th Street, is scheduled for an opening sometime in 2010. When exactly? Friends of the High Line (http://www.thehighline.org/) isn't saying, but these aerial photos sent in by a Curbed tipster show just how far the extension of everyone's favorite makeover of formerly abandoned train tracks has to go. Will Section 2 be ready for the June one-year anniversary of the debut of Section 1 (http://curbed.com/tags/high-line-opening-chronicles)? Only a select group of construction workers, gardeners and Diane von Furstenbergs knows. In the meantime, here are the fairly awesome Phase II renderings (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/06/25/high_line_new_renderings_reveal_phase_two.php), and for real High Line fanboys, there's the new online merch store (http://www.thehighline.org/shop)! This Valentine's Day, say "I love you" with a High Line umbrella.

High Line Web Shop (http://www.thehighline.org/shop?order=Name) [thehighline.org]
High Line New Renderings Reveal: Phase Two (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/06/25/high_line_new_renderings_reveal_phase_two.php) [Curbed]

http://curbed.com/archives/2010/01/19/high_line_spy_shots_show_new_section_not_yet_in_bl oom.php

Merry

January 20th, 2010, 02:07 AM

A different take on the HL - polaroids. Very appropriate :).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2430/3633259213_2a890a6a97_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3378/3633260555_ec8375b9f6_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3298/3632953931_8900ff7bf3_o.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniebee/tags/highline/
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/anniebee/sets/1194319/)

ablarc

January 20th, 2010, 07:54 AM

The last photo is especially good.

The Benniest

January 26th, 2010, 03:16 AM

I love the polaroid pics! Very appropriate for the High Line!

Thanks for posting!

lofter1

January 27th, 2010, 02:52 PM

Today, from Friends of the High Line:

This afternoon, the Department of City Planning certified an application for the City to begin the public review process to allow it to acquire the remaining portion of the High Line, at the West Side Rail Yards. City acquisition of this half-mile section has long been our most pressing goal at the rail yards, and as the City begins its move toward this goal, we'd like to express our thanks for your support. Our work at the rail yards is not yet complete, but without you, we never would have made it this far.

Over the next several months, there will be multiple opportunities to show your support for full preservation of the High Line at the rail yards. You'll shortly be receiving our email newsletter, with more details about the announcement and the next steps.

We hope you'll continue to support our rail yards advocacy in whatever way you can, and help us ensure that this iconic piece of our city's industrial history is preserved for generations of New Yorkers to come.

Merry

February 12th, 2010, 06:45 AM

High Line Gets Gashed on 30th Street

February 11, 2010, by Joey

http://curbed.com/uploads/2010_2_hl30.jpg

Fourteen tons of steel were yanked off the High Line at 30th Street recently to make way for a new staircase and elevator at what will be the northernmost point of the promenade once Section 2 (http://curbed.com/archives/2008/06/25/high_line_new_renderings_reveal_phase_two.php) opens. This overhead shot of the "30th Street Spur" (the point where the trestle curves and wraps around the West Side Rail Yards) was taken by one of the High Line's structural engineers and posted on the High Line Blog (http://blog.thehighline.org/2010/02/10/30th-street-access-point-cutting-complete/). In an earlier item, the High Line Blog explained (http://blog.thehighline.org/2010/01/15/section-2-construction-30th-street-entrance/) that, "Like the stairs at Gansevoort Street and 14th Street, the 30th Street stairs will cut through the structure, bringing visitors face-to-face with the High Line’s steel beams and rivets." Rendering please!

http://curbed.com/uploads/2010_2_hl302.jpg

There it is, in all its James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro glory. We're glad to see that the green elevator tinting (http://curbed.com/archives/2009/10/30/high_line_chooses_not_to_take_park_in_halloween_tr ickery.php) is becoming the High Line standard. It makes taxis look all crazy!

30th Street Access Point: Cutting Complete! (http://blog.thehighline.org/2010/02/10/30th-street-access-point-cutting-complete/) [High Line Blog]
High Line Spy Shots Show New Section Not Yet in Bloom (http://curbed.com/archives/2010/01/19/high_line_spy_shots_show_new_section_not_yet_in_bl oom.php) [Curbed]

http://curbed.com/archives/2010/02/11/high_line_gets_gashed_on_30th_street.php#more

lofter1

February 12th, 2010, 10:04 AM

More hearings to allow the public to offer support for further extension / preservation of the High Line ...

The City recently began the public review process to allow it to take ownership of Section 3 of the High Line at the West Side Rail Yards. This is great news, and it kicks off a crucial, official step towards full preservation of the High Line. The first two opportunities for public input on City acquisition of the High Line have just been calendared, and we need you to come out and show your support for this City action. We hope you can join us for one or both of the following:

Community Board 4 Chelsea Preservation and Planning Committee Meeting
Tuesday, February 16th, 6:00 PM
Penn South Community Room, 343 8th Avenue at 27th Street

Community Board 4 Full Board Meeting
Wednesday, March 3rd, 6:30 PM
Fulton Center Auditorium, 119 Ninth Avenue, between 18th and 19th Streets

NOTE: If you can only attend one of these, we encourage you to come to the Full Board meeting.

These two meetings are part of the first step in the City's seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP). You can read more about ULURP on our Web site (http://thehighline.org/news/2010/01/27/city-takes-big-step-toward-the-high-lines-preservation-at-the-rail-yards).

Subsequent to Community Board review, there will be public hearings before the City Planning Commission and the City Council. Future public hearings are critical milestones, and it will be important that we demonstrate a strong base of support at those events. We will keep you posted on the dates of these future hearings.

Community Board 4 has long been supportive of the High Line’s preservation at the Rail Yards, and we expect them to recommend the City's application to pursue High Line ownership. However, it is still important that we have a strong turnout to show the Community Board, our elected officials, the MTA, and the developer that City acquisition and full preservation of the High Line should be a top priority at the site.

Merry

February 27th, 2010, 03:29 AM

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/4388483498_78e18b04e0_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digiart2001/4388483498/in/pool-curbed

Jasonik

March 2nd, 2010, 11:57 AM

AIA New York Chapter Juries Announce 2010 Design Award Winners [pdf] (http://main.aiany.org/files/2010_AIANYDesignAwards.pdf)

Urban Design Honor Award Winner:

Architect: James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Project: The High Line
Location: New York, NY

ablarc

March 2nd, 2010, 02:44 PM

If only they had done as well at Lincoln Center.

lofter1

March 2nd, 2010, 03:46 PM

James Corner Field Operations weren't on board with them at Lincoln Center.

Perhaps they need a partner to do their better work?

ablarc

March 2nd, 2010, 06:18 PM

^ An iridescent statement. Its meaning varies by whom you mean by "they."

ZippyTheChimp

March 10th, 2010, 09:11 PM

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/7881/highline31c.th.jpg (http://img696.imageshack.us/i/highline31c.jpg/) http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/1017/highline32c.th.jpg (http://img696.imageshack.us/i/highline32c.jpg/)

scumonkey

March 21st, 2010, 05:47 PM

I tried to visit yesterday (because I happened to find myself down there, and haven't been yet).
Forget about it!
There was a line of tour buses unloading, a little stand by the stairs
(it looked like Lucy's Dr. is in/out booth from peanuts) maned with people counters,
and a line going down the block waiting to be let up.
These tour bus groups unloading mobs are BS:mad:
If this is what is going to be the norm, they should be charging those operators to help fund the park,
they leave no room for people who live here to visit unless its raining or cold.:rolleyes:

stache

March 21st, 2010, 07:04 PM

Just go during the week (and stop bitching!) :D

NYatKNIGHT

March 22nd, 2010, 05:11 PM

Or early, or at night...

stache

March 22nd, 2010, 07:18 PM

Yes. Night is a good variation.

BrooklynRider

March 23rd, 2010, 12:18 PM

Or, push your way yo the front screaming, "HE TOOK MY BABY! HE TOOK MY BABY!"

You'll get right in.

Ninjahedge

March 24th, 2010, 08:50 AM

Funny, that never worked for me.... :confused:

Merry

April 4th, 2010, 02:19 AM

High Line Second Section Opening Pushed Back to 2011

By Nicole Breskin

CHELSEA — The planned fall opening of the second section of the High Line has been pushed back to 2011, officials said Thursday.

The park’s second stretch — running from 20th to 30th streets — was slated to open later this year after the initial section debuted last summer.

But Parks Department and High Line officials say that date could be pushed back to as late as the spring or summer of 2011.

"Scheduling construction projects is never a perfect science," said Kate Lindquist, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Friends of the High Line, which oversees maintenance and management of the park.

"A recent review of the construction schedule shows that Section 2 will open in spring 2011."

She added that construction of the second section is already fully funded.

“Fundraising is the biggest challenge,” said Joshua David, cofounder of Friends of the High Line, about the park's reliance on private donations. “In the toughest fundraising year, in the 2009 calendar year, we expanded our staff and our budget. It’s an ongoing issue, but I’m eager and optimistic.”

“Great parks don’t come for free,” added Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe of the fundraising efforts. “This park had a huge private investment.”

The news came as the Parks Department, which handles security and some maintenance for the park, marked the High Line’s 2 millionth visitor by the planting an eastern red bud tree near the park’s Gansevoort Street entrance Thursday afternoon. The number of visitors is an estimate based on park rangers’ counts, Friend of the High Line said.

Construction has continued on the second section during past six months, with work being completed on the park’s “great lawn” and a “woodland tree-top canopy walk,” officials noted.

“There will be a diverse set of experiences,” Benepe said at the event. “The High Line is and will continue to be one of the world’s most unusual parks.”

The event saw speeches by Benepe and City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, as well as Congressman Jerrold Nadler.

“The High Line, a symbol of New York’s great past as a transportation and manufacturing hub, has become a spectacular resource for New Yorkers and visitors to this great city to enjoy and admire,” Nadler said.

City Speaker Christine Quinn added in a statement: “The High Line has really raised the bar of what park space can be.”

Friend of the High Line is currently working to secure $50 million in private funding for additional capital costs. So far, approximately $44 million has been raised.

The funds are expected to meet construction costs for the second section and build an endowment for the High Line’s maintenance and operations.
The Parks Department estimates the total cost of the High Line is $152 million.

The first of the High Line’s three sections, running from Gansevoort to 20th streets, opened in June 2009. The third section, which extends up to the Western Rail yards development site, is currently undergoing the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure to allow the park to acquire the remaining rail tracks (http://www.dnainfo.com/20100304/manhattan/high-line-soars-over-first-hurdle-extend-park-34th-street).

http://www.dnainfo.com/20100401/manhattan/high-line-second-section-opening-pushed-back-2011#ixzz0k6c6Q8vS

meesalikeu

April 7th, 2010, 09:36 PM

spring on the highline -- via my iphone camera

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/7d57ac67.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/791032d6.jpg

the highline building is finally getting some glass
http://www.450w14.com/index.html
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/8754a61c.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/fb166007.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/384bba10.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/3dcf2a3c.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/62c84bcb.jpg
http://www.456w19.com/

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/551620d8.jpg

http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/519dbcb8.jpg

http://www.metalshutterhouses.com/content/default.htm#2
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/84b25ba4.jpg

http://www.nouvelchelsea.com/
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/a3bf2669.jpg

more highline coming soon (later this year)
http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/meesalikeu4/1283012e.jpg

ZippyTheChimp

May 11th, 2010, 10:29 PM

Viewing Station (http://www.thehighline.org/blog/2010/05/07/high-line-art-richard-galpins-viewing-station)

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/9787/highline48.th.jpg (http://img179.imageshack.us/i/highline48.jpg/) http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/4316/highline49.th.jpg (http://img51.imageshack.us/i/highline49.jpg/)

Merry

May 14th, 2010, 08:52 AM

Marvelous :).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3556/4601727678_920df808c5_b.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cwriteandtheride/4601727678/in/pool-curbed

ablarc

May 14th, 2010, 08:07 PM

^ It really is marvelous.

Too bad about the blockbuster "tower in a park" at right, however.

Btw, is that blue building, center, almost as good as Nouvel's Vision machine, at a fraction of the cost?

Merry

May 15th, 2010, 07:42 AM

^ Yes, the commie block spoils the vista. The blue building is gorgeous, and I like it better than the Vision Machine -- less uniformity(?), which takes nothing away from Nouvel's masterpiece :cool:.

High Line Sequel Starts Taking Shape

May 14, 2010, by Joey

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_5_hlphase2.jpg

Speaking of the High Line, as we so often are, Fred Wilson provides this fresh photo of the park's under-construction second section, which has been delayed until next year. That sweet, sweet decking is finally being installed, and HL23 couldn't be happier. That is, if an alien spaceship could show human emotion.

Section Two of the Highline (http://fredwilson.vc/post/597010172/section-two-of-the-highline-to-open-in-spring) [fredwilson.vc]
High Line's Next Section Not Opening Until 2011 (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/04/02/high_lines_next_section_not_opening_until_2011.php ) [Curbed]
High Line Spy Shots Show New Section Not Yet in Bloom (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/01/19/high_line_spy_shots_show_new_section_not_yet_in_bl oom.php) [Curbed]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/05/14/high_line_sequel_starts_taking_shape.php

ZippyTheChimp

May 15th, 2010, 09:01 AM

The blue building is the Chelsea Modern (http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12965&page=3).

Merry

May 16th, 2010, 04:17 AM

^ Thanks, Zip, I knew it was on here somewhere, memory malfunction :rolleyes:.

Merry

May 20th, 2010, 06:38 AM

Construction Update: High Line Section 2

http://www.thehighline.org/newsletters/051910/Section2ConstructionUpdate-ChelseaThicket.jpg

Construction activity advances as crews continue to install the railroad tracks, planked pathways, and plantings that will make up Section 2 of the High Line. Just beyond the metal fence at the northern end of Section 1, crews are nearly finished with the installation of the rail tracks and tapered planks that will define the meandering pathway and planting beds in the Chelsea Thicket, between West 20th and 22nd Streets. The installation of the living roof system – a drainage system located below the planting soil and comprised of layers of perforated matting, crushed gravel, and woven filter fabric – will be installed next, followed by soil and plant installation to match the plans created by landscape architects James Corner Field Operations and planting designer Piet Oudolf. Visit our Web site (http://www.thehighline.org/design/high-line-design) for renderings and more information about Section 2's design.

http://thehighline.org/newsletters/051910.html

Merry

May 24th, 2010, 10:38 PM

The High Line's Catwalk is Rising Above West Chelsea

May 24, 2010, by Joey

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_5_woodland1.jpg

The one-year delay is a bummer, sure, but the pictures (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/05/14/high_line_sequel_starts_taking_shape.php) we've seen (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/05/19/high_line_lays_it_on_thicket_belated_chops_at_80_m et.php) lately showing actual progress has us once again pretty darn excited about the second section of the High Line, running from 20th Street up to 30th Street. The latest breakthrough might just be the installation of the promenade's three-block-long Woodland Flyover, a metal walkway that will lift pedestrians up over the High Line's bed and into a grove of sumac trees. In short: Nature in yo face, son! A tipster sent along some pictures taken this morning, speculating that the Woodland Flyover is indeed what's currently taking shape. Let's revisit what this runway will look like:

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_5_woodland2.jpg

That right there is the rendering, seen in the collection of Phase II images (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2008/06/25/high_line_new_renderings_reveal_phase_two.php) released two summers ago. Here's another street-level look at what's going on:

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_5_woodland3.jpg

High Line Construction Chronicles coverage (http://ny.curbed.com/tags/high-line-construction-chronicles) [Curbed]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/05/24/the_high_lines_catwalk_is_rising_above_west_chelse a.php#more

ZippyTheChimp

May 26th, 2010, 10:38 PM

Some shots at the north end of Section 2.

Crossing W29th St
http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/7910/highline33c.th.jpg (http://img693.imageshack.us/i/highline33c.jpg/)

Crossing W30th St
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/743/highline34c.th.jpg (http://img39.imageshack.us/i/highline34c.jpg/)

Entering the railyard (Section 3 )
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1613/highline35c.th.jpg (http://img33.imageshack.us/i/highline35c.jpg/) http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8332/highline36c.th.jpg (http://img25.imageshack.us/i/highline36c.jpg/)

Spur that once ran into the Morgan Parcel Post Building.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/681/highline37c.th.jpg (http://img267.imageshack.us/i/highline37c.jpg/) http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9931/highline38c.th.jpg (http://img29.imageshack.us/i/highline38c.jpg/) http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/5904/highline39c.th.jpg (http://img694.imageshack.us/i/highline39c.jpg/)

ablarc

May 29th, 2010, 06:23 PM

http://ny.curbed.com/uploads/2010_5_woodland2.jpg
Can't escape the girl in the white dress (not that you'd really want to); she's in all the renderings. Do you suppose she gets her due in royalties?

lofter1

May 30th, 2010, 06:42 PM

Has she inspired you to join Friends of the High Line (https://www.thehighline.org/get-involved/membership)?

Merry

June 16th, 2010, 06:08 AM

Up Close and Very Personal With Phase II of the High Line

June 14, 2010, by Pete

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/1299/4693641251_dee248dd9d_o.jpg
A future picnicking spot takes shape near 23rd Street.

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4054/4694275534_825220736c_o.jpg (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/06/14/up_close_and_very_personal_with_phase_ii_of_the_hi gh_line.php)

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/3110/2611231076_831950f7e7_o.jpg

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4039/4693640807_e2b105d7b8_o.jpg

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4039/4693641663_390c7051a3_o.jpg

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4016/4694275942_63729ac17e_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4016/4694275942_de15326cb9_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4035/4694275682_384d0183cb_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4035/4694275682_9639bbfaf6_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4015/4693640931_3cfc8c1a49_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4015/4693640931_f98c8829a4_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4036/4694276362_760b37e17d_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4036/4694276362_f623cdbb06_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/3055/2610398339_e389e09fbf_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/3055/2610398339_f9a5de3614_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4002/4694276422_28e487d67e_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4002/4694276422_3cf894c595_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4072/4693641759_296bbe58fa_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4072/4693641759_80bdabcd6a_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4069/4693641313_d59dc01241_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4069/4693641313_00e4f9df6c_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4022/4693641391_75a8e52792_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4022/4693641391_02625ab23a_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4043/4693641465_b941c276e5_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4043/4693641465_4388d8ea7e_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/3135/2610398549_8cb743cf3c_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/3135/2610398549_e06f8defc6_o.jpg) http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4066/4694276758_6b51f74f3b_s.jpg (http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4066/4694276758_923d453aa0_o.jpg)
(click to enlarge)

Two years ago the renderings (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2008/06/25/high_line_new_renderings_reveal_phase_two.php) for the next section of the High Line were revealed, showing enough high design to make our heads spin. The Phase II delay until mid-2011 (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/04/02/high_lines_next_section_not_opening_until_2011.php ) has added to the anticipation, and led to several covert glimpses (http://ny.curbed.com/tags/high-line-section-2) of what's going on thirty feet above West Chelsea. We don't have to sneak around any longer. To mark the first anniversary of Phase I's opening, Friends of the High Line unlocked the gates on the sequel (running north to 30th Street) and gave the media an early peek. Here's what we found.

This next phase, funded as before by a mix of private contributions and public funding, contrasts mightily with the original stretch of park winding through the Meatpacking District. The extension runs in a straight line parallel to Tenth Avenue from West 20th up to West 28th Street, where the neighboring buildings rise high against the old railbed.

Apartment windows are within arms length, giving new meaning to public-private partnership. For now, before the High Line woodlands and thickets get planted and while all the high-tech concrete plankings and metal fly-overs are being installed, the proximity between rails and residents is both a bit unnerving and a tad tantalizing.

Residents of buildings both new and old will be making all sorts of awkward eye contact with High Liners. At 23rd Street, where a park entry with glass elevator is going in and a long green lawn will spread to the south, the slanting windows at architect Neil Denari's HL23 (http://ny.curbed.com/tags/hl23) will give ample opportunity to see and be seen. Across the rails to the east sits a swell little deck, tucked away amidst the trees; long-time residents there must be praying for a thicket or three to thwart voyeurs and screen the views.

Woodlands await a block north, where the blinding brightness (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2009/02/03/245_tenths_heavy_metal_still_blinding.php) of the empty and in-limbo 245 Tenth Avenue rises. Just to the west, above 24th Street, a private patio sheltered by a rustic fence may soon be private no more, sitting as it does only inches from the park's edge. At 27th Street, the new 303 Tenth (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/04/08/new_chelsea_rental_building_goes_gay.php) backs up to the High Line, with windows rising high and a wooden terrace stretching low below the park. Here an aromatic Wildflower Field will help to keep things sweet (and mask the pleasures of the vast metal scrap yard to the west).

Above 28th Street the sky widens and Midtown's towers hover in the distance like Oz. A wide curve leads to 30th Street, and there the design team of James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro have opened up the old trestle, exposing the steel for a glass covered cut-out that will mark the end point of Phase II. From here the Hudson River can be seen, and the vast open space of the West Side Rail Yards lies just to the north. Things are falling in place (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2009/10/19/tip_of_the_high_line_on_the_path_to_salvation.php) for the High Line to acquire that final stretch of tracks and turn it into Phase III, which will run for another 1/2 mile around the 26-acre Hudson Yards (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2009/05/28/new_hudson_yards_sneak_preview_comes_10_years_earl y.php) development. Who know what crazy stuff the designers will dream up for that one, but hopefully an inner tube lazy river is at the top of their list.

High Line New Renderings Reveal: Phase Two (http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2008/06/25/high_line_new_renderings_reveal_phase_two.php) [Curbed]
High Line Section 2 coverage (http://ny.curbed.com/tags/high-line-section-2) [Curbed]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/06/14/up_close_and_very_personal_with_phase_ii_of_the_hi gh_line.php

Merry

July 15th, 2010, 07:21 AM

Some Assembly Required at High Line's Phase II

July 14, 2010, by Joey

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4101/4793479497_05e11763a7_o.jpg

http://cdn.cstatic.net/cache/gallery/4142/4794114332_89b88e163f_o.jpg

Now that turning abandoned train tracks into world-renowned landscaped promenades has become the hottest urban trend since bike lanes ("The High Line...has become, like bagels and CompStat, another kind of New York export," the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/arts/design/15highline.html?partner=rss&emc=rss) writes), it's time for the Big Apple to step its game up. And indeed, the under-construction second leg of the High Line is getting ready to wow. A tipster sends over some fresh shots from 23rd Street and Tenth Avenue, where it looks like the seating that will one day accompany The Lawn is taking shape. Meanwhile, just to the north, some pieces of the Woodland Flyover platform (this crazy thing) have started to arrive. Suck it, Chicago!

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/07/14/some_assembly_required_at_high_lines_phase_ii.php

Merry

July 28th, 2010, 08:35 AM

High Line's Final Section Moves Closer to Reality

Supporters of the elevated parkway gained a victory Tues. that could pave the way for city ownership of the final section.

By Tara Kyle

MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — The High Line took another major step toward completion Tuesday when a City Council committee voted unanimously in favor of purchasing and developing the final section of the elevated park.

That section, which snakes from 10th to 12th avenues between 30th and 34th streets, is still owned by a rail road company, requiring that the city go through a seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) — a public review — before it can acquire the land.

“Many people think the entire High Line has been preserved, but the truth is, one third has not been protected,” Joshua David, co-founder and chief development officer of Friends of the High Line, said during the hearing.

The 6-0 vote Tuesday by the City Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses to recommend approval of the ULURP cleared the way for a full vote before the City Council on Thursday, following a Wednesday stop at the Land Use Committee.

If the City Council approves the purchase of the land, the city will still have to negotiate a formal purchase deal with CSX Transportation, Inc. — the rail road company that owns the land — but the company is reportedly in favor of selling to the city and problems are not anticipated.

Then, if ownership is secured, the city would begin the process of gathering funds for design and construction.

The High Line’s first section, running from Gansevoort to 20th Street, opened in June 2009, has hosted two million visitors so far, according to Michael Bradley, High Line Administrator for the Parks Department. The second section, running from 20th to 30th streets, (http://dnainfo.com/20100614/manhattan/highline-set-expand-north-30th-street) is slated to open in the spring of 2011.

About 20 High Line supporters in attendance at the meeting wore red t-shirts with “Save the High Line at the Rail Yard” and “Save the Spur” printed across the front. The spur is the portion of the final section crossing 10th Avenue at 30th Street.

Among the public supporters was Jan Levy, an Upper West Side resident and former Community Board 7 member who has been involved in High Line efforts since the earliest days, 25 years ago.

“The time has come to close the circle and make the High Line whole,” Levy said.

http://dnainfo.com/20100727/manhattan/high-lines-final-section-moves-closer-reality#ixzz0uyZB634N

Merry

July 30th, 2010, 09:04 AM

High Line Final Section Gets Support of City Council

The City Council voted unanimously in favor of the purchasing and development of the High Line’s final third.

By Tara Kyle

http://s3.amazonaws.com/sfb111/image_xlimage_2010_03_R1997_high_line_at_34th_stre et.jpg
The High Line at 34th Street, part of the area not yet owned by the city.
(Jesse Chehak/Courtesy Friends of the High Line)

MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — The City Council voted unanimously Thursday in favor of the purchasing and development of the High Line’s final section, clearing the way for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s review of the plan and, at last, the completion of the elevated park.

The area in question, bounded by 30th and 34th Streets and traveling between 10th and 12th avenues, is still owned by a railroad company, not the city. Unlike the High Line sections running from Gansevoort to 20th Street, it was not acquired by the city in 2005.

The City Council’s vote delivered on the promise of a recent subcommittee meeting, where High Line supporters had a final opportunity to make their arguments for passing the High Line through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP) — a public approval process that is a precondition for acquiring land.

Madelon Spiers, a Chelsea resident since the 1960s in the audience at the City Council meeting, reflected on the project's long journey, noting that she used to hate the High Line.

She remembered years of listening to the sound of trains creaking above her apartment, and a dangerous environment on the unmaintained grounds in the years after trains stopped running.

“It was very scary,” said Spiers, who is in her 70s, of a bike trip she took on the High Line years ago. “If anybody wanted to make trouble, there was no escape.”

The High Line’s ULURP application must now go to Bloomberg’s office for final review. If he approves it, the city can begin negotiations with the railroad company that owns the land, CSX Transportation, Inc, which has indicated its willingness to sell.

"The vote brings us one step closer to the transformation of the entire High Line," Joshua David, co-founder of Friends of the High Line, said in a statement.

"We look forward to working with the Bloomberg administration and all parties to discuss the next steps for the High Line at the rail yards."

http://dnainfo.com/20100729/manhattan/high-line-final-section-gets-support-of-city-council#ixzz0vANN5Uan

ZippyTheChimp

July 30th, 2010, 12:28 PM

High Line staff is using the Whitney extension site for maintenance. They installed a chute that connects to a compactor.

http://a.imageshack.us/img441/6031/highline40c.th.jpg (http://img441.imageshack.us/i/highline40c.jpg/) http://a.imageshack.us/img824/4163/highline41c.th.jpg (http://img824.imageshack.us/i/highline41c.jpg/) http://a.imageshack.us/img824/1541/highline42c.th.jpg (http://img824.imageshack.us/i/highline42c.jpg/) http://a.imageshack.us/img824/5529/highline43c.th.jpg (http://img824.imageshack.us/i/highline43c.jpg/)

http://a.imageshack.us/img830/7827/highline50.th.jpg (http://img830.imageshack.us/i/highline50.jpg/)

MidtownGuy

July 30th, 2010, 12:38 PM

I'm glad they're moving forward with the purchase.

Last time I was up there, they had little barriers strung in front of the plant beds; it looked pretty stupid. The concrete "fingers" that dissolve into the plantings may not be working out so well?

NYatKNIGHT

July 30th, 2010, 02:07 PM

Maybe the plants just need a chance to grow out more (though they really have flourished this summer), but you're right, those strings are a bit of an annoyance. And how complicated is that "water feature" anyway that takes months and months to install? It's been really hot, it would be nice to have it while it's still summer.

lofter1

July 30th, 2010, 02:56 PM

LOL ^ The Water Feature is driving everyone at the HL (including the designers) crazy.

MidtownGuy

July 30th, 2010, 08:33 PM

All this trouble and fuss over what will amount to a little splash puddle. Geez. Imagine if they had gone with the linear aquariums of waterlilies or the swimming lanes...lol.

lofter1

August 12th, 2010, 01:19 PM

All the Buzz: Citizen Scientists Watch Bees on the High Line

WNYC News (http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/aug/12/watching-bees-high-line/)
By Kate Hinds
August 12, 2010

The High Line (http://www.thehighline.org/) is, as you may already know, the abandoned rail line on Manhattan’s West Side that’s been reinvented as an elevated park. When it was still in service, trains used the High Line to transport milk, meat, produce and other goods. The last train rolled down the line in 1980. But if you listen closely, there’s still cargo being carried.

That buzzing sound you hear these days is Bombus impatiens, the Eastern Bumble Bee, and it’s collecting pollen from some flowering mountain mint that’s been planted here on the High Line. And it’s not alone.

"I didn’t do a full count, but I would guess there are at least a thousand, if not more, individuals foraging here," says Kevin Matteson, an ecologist with Fordham University. "Probably much more."

Matteson is one of the people behind something called The Great Pollinator Project (http://greatpollinatorproject.org/). It’s a collaboration between the American Museum of Natural History and the New York City Parks and Recreation Department's Greenbelt Native Plant Center (http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/parks_divisions/gnpc/index.html). The goal is to get members of the public — “citizen scientists” in Great Pollinator parlance — to observe bees and report what they see and where they see it. The project then uses that data to determine how bees are affected by habitat and land use.

"I think what we’re going to find is because insects in general, and bees, are so small, they’re probably able to use a lot smaller habitat patches, little nooks and crannies here to meet their needs," says Elizabeth Johnson, a project scientist who is the manager of the Metropolitan Biodiversity Program at the American Museum of Natural History.

She and Matteson were recently on the High Line to talk about bee conservation, and help the public identify different bees. About 20 bee watchers have shown up to talk about what they’ve seen in the field and ask questions.

"That's a bee?" asks one person.

"Yeah, that's a bee, even the little tiny one," says Johnson.

The task of the bee watcher is straightforward: Choose a single plant to observe, and count the number of bees that land directly on an open flower head. You’re done when you’ve counted five discrete bee visits — or when half an hour passes, whichever comes first. The tricky part is figuring out what type of bee you’re looking at. So Matteson captures a few bees in glass vials to help with the identification process. Luckily for him, he says, "bees don’t hold a grudge."

He opens a vial, and the bee hatches its vertical escape plan. In scientific lingo it's called "negative geotropism," he says, "which is just a way of saying 'they like to fly up.'”

But before it gets away, he identifies it. This particular bee has yellow sides and carries its pollen under its abdomen, so it’s a Leafcutter bee. Not too far away from that bee is a beautiful shiny green metallic bee, and Matteson and the bee watchers spot Wool Carder bees and Long-Horned bees as well. There’s a lot of diversity in the city’s bee population. Since records have been kept, over 200 different species have been recorded here, and Matteson estimates that about 100 are currently flying in the city. Some of those are relative newcomers.

"We have a lot of exotic bee species that have taken up residence and seem to do well in the city," he says. "So, we have about 16 bee species from Europe and Asia originally. They were probably stowaways on ships that came into New York Harbor. And then they’re just established populations here, not just in New York City, but the entire Northeast. But New York City is sort of a hotbed for exotic bees."

This surprises some of the bee watchers. Erenia Meriton works for the Seychelles Embassy. She used to watch carpenter bees in the Seychelles islands, off the coast of Madagascar. Now, she and her two children watch bees on Roosevelt Island. "I was surprised that there were so many bee species here," Meriton says, "not only in New York and America but all over the world. I knew there were a lot of them, but I didn’t know the numbers."

There’s a lot left to learn and Matteson says that when it comes to native bees, we don’t know what we don’t know. "Let’s focus on some of the wild bee species that we don’t know much about, so that we can promote conservation of them and knowledge of them," he says. "Because we don’t want to lose things without even knowing it."

Learn more about The Great Pollinator Project or to sign up to become a bee watcher. (http://greatpollinatorproject.org/)

Merry

August 13th, 2010, 08:08 AM

Last part of High Line needs Bloomberg’s okay

Mayor Bloomberg’s approval is all that is needed to complete the High Line Park in Chelsea.

BY Albert Amateau

The City Council has voted unanimously to approve the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure for the north end of the High Line that wraps around the West Side Rail Yards.

The Council action on July 29 leaves only Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s approval for the city to begin to acquire the last segment of the elevated rail line from 30th to 34th Streets to complete the 1.5-mile park.

Friends of the High Line, the grass-roots organization that convinced Bloomberg in 2001 to convert the derelict railroad viaduct along 10th Avenue into an elevated city park, was jubilant.

Joshua David, a co-founder of the Friends, told the Council the approval is a step nearer the Friend’s vision of a public park, 30 feet above street level, from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District around the rail yards to 34th Street across from the Javits Convention Center.

Salmaan Khan, a Friends staff member, said, “This vote is a major milestone towards the full preservation and transformation of the High Line at the rail yard into a continuous open space. Once approved by the mayor it will allow the City of New York to move forward with the acquisition of the High Line above 30th Street, including the 10th Avenue spur.”

The line’s 10th Avenue spur extends east a half block on 30th Street between 11th and 10th Avenues to near where the line originally connected with the Morgan Annex Post Office, when the New York Central Railroad built the line more than 70 years ago.

CSX, the railroad that inherited the line, transferred the southern two thirds of the viaduct from Gansevoort to 20th Street and from 20th to 30th Streets to the city for a token $1 per segment in 2003. But the segment that loops around the rail yards and the spur to the east still belong to CSX. The city has indicated it would soon begin negotiations with CSX for the remaining segment, but as yet no funding or plans exist.

The conversion into a park of the Gansevoort to the 20th Street segment was completed last spring and has already welcomed more than two million visitors. The conversion of the 20th Street to 30th Street segment is underway and is expected to open in the spring of 2011.

Preservation of the remaining segment required the agreement by the Bloomberg Administration and the Metropolitan Transportation Administration, which owns the section of the West Side Rail Yards and Related Companies, the designated developer of the airspace above the rail yards. The approval of the West Chelsea and the Hudson Yards rezoning in 2005 paved the way for the full High Line Park.

David last week paid tribute to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Mayor, the M.T.A. and Related Companies for their vision “to save this historic structure and transform it into a great public space to be treasured by generations to come.”

Edward Kirkland of Community Board 4’s Chelsea preservation and planning committee told those present at the July 29 Council meeting that C.B. 2 unanimously endorsed the inclusion of the third segment of the High Line. The loop from 10th Avenue runs between 30th and 34th Street along the West Side Highway across from Hudson River Park, Kirkland noted. He said the Hudson River Park Trust was discussing a proposed pedestrian bridge over the highway from the Hudson River Park walkway at 32nd Street to the High Line that would provide a two-mile walkway with striking views of the city and the river without a single cross street.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_381/lastpart.html