In what promises to be a great new urban space, the High Line in New York City is getting closer to opening. The 1.45 mile elevated rail line that runs along the West Side of Manhattan is being turned into a public park and promenade. Trains stopped using the structure in 1980.
The first section of the cutting edge linear green space is projected to open this spring. Conversion of the industrial relic to public amenity is estimated to cost $100 million, much of it publicly funded.
The High Line was designed architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro, landscape studio Field Operations, and the lighting design firm L'Observatoire. From the Friends of the High Line website:
The High Line runs through three of Manhattan's most dynamic neighborhoods: Hell's Kitchen/Hudson Yards, West Chelsea, and the Gansevoort Market Historic District. When the High Line was built in the 1930s, these neighborhoods were dominated by industrial and transportation uses. Now many of the warehouses and factories have been converted to art galleries, design studios, retailers, restaurants, museums, and residences.
In 2002, a group of business-owners in the High Line District joined together to advocate for the High Line's preservation and reuse. Called the Chelsea-Village Business Owners (CVBO), the group now includes over 250 High Line District businesses.
When the High Line is converted to public open space, you will be able to rise up from the streets and step into a place apart, tranquil and green. You will see the Hudson River, the Manhattan skyline, and secret gardens inside city blocks as you've never seen them before. You will move between Penn Station and the Hudson River Park, from the convention center to the Gansevoort Market Historic District, without meeting a car or truck.
Piet Oudolf is the planting designer for the High Line design team. Based in the Netherlands, Oudolf was one of the first planting designers to introduce large-scale perennial plantings into public landscapes. He is known for establishing captivating, dynamic, and durable landscapes of texture, fragrance, and color, with a particular interest in seasonal variation, plant life cycle, and transformation over time.
Since a June 2005 rezoning, the area surrounding the park has seen a boom in new development, much of it cutting-edge architecture. An estimated $900 million worth of offices, hotels and residential space is in various stages of development. The soon-to-open Standard Hotel straddles the park in the sky (photo below). Big thinking in the big city.
Images from curbed.com
Mayor Guiliani worked hard to tear down the High Line. Fortunately, community resistance and the transition to the Bloomberg administration fostered an environment for this project to happen. The result is shaping up to be one of NYC's most worthwhile public works projects in a generation.
Years ago, I managed to find a section of steel upon which I could climb up to the tracks. There were so many holes in the structure to fall through that you had to be careful. I didn't have the courage to stay up there and walk around. I regret it.
It should be noted that a low-cost worldwide design competition via the internet was conducted to seek worthwhile ideas for the High Line. There is no reason Buffalo cannot duplicate the concept of design competitions, too, for its stock of old churches, houses, grain elevators and empty plots of land. Buffalo suffers because it has been so insular in its thinking.
Totally stupid remark, Balth