High Line (NYC)
The High Line is a defunct railway that runs 30 feet above Manhattan between 10th and 11th Avenues, from 34th Street to Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district. It is being transformed into a public park, part of which is to open in June 2009.
The project 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.
The elevated rail line, which opened in 1934, was originally designed to replace street tracks that led to many pedestrian deaths. The High Line was built to last -- it can support four fully loaded freight trains -- but it was gradually replaced by trucks and an interstate highway system.
In 1970, the High Line was cut at Bank Street, and 10 years later the route closed entirely. The owner at the time, Conrail, was happy to surrender the line to Peter Obletz, a visionary whose hopes for resurrecting local passenger rail service ultimately fizzled.
The new High Line park, designed by an architectural team from Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will offer a retreat from street life, a bucolic space floating 30 feet in the air with Hudson River views. Yet it will retain 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 in the 1990s into a $170 million project -- is being built at all is a marvel.
Much of the designers' work has been devoted to seeking a balance between preserving what one called "the romance of the ruin" -- wild grasses growing up through the metal skeleton of rails and rivets -- and creating a fresh green corridor for pedestrians. (The High Line is currently off limits.)
Condominiums, hotels and office buildings designed by architectural talent like Jean Nouvel, Annabelle Selldorf, Renzo Piano, and the Della Valle Bernheimer firm are sprouting along the park's span. André Balazs's 18-story Standard Hotel, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, is the only new building that rises directly over the elevated park. The towering structure is supported on massive concrete pillars, while a ground-floor restaurant and garden cafe are tucked underneath the High Line's hefty steel frame.
But some developers are feeling discomfort 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.
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Renovated High Line Now Open for Strolling
By ROBIN POGREBIN
June 9, 2009
High Line Poised to Receive Visitors
By ROBIN POGREBIN; COMPILED BY DAVE ITZKOFF
June 5, 2009
Seeing the Hudson River Through 700 Windows
By CAROL VOGEL
May 22, 2009
Plan for Taller Tower in Meatpacking District Draws Critics
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
April 29, 2009
Industrial Sleek (a Park Runs Through It)
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
April 9, 2009
Dia Art Foundation Calls Off Museum Project
By CAROL VOGEL
October 25, 2006
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Rendering by Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Courtesy the City of New York
James Estrin/The New York Times
The High Line is a defunct railway that runs 30 feet above Manhattan between 10th and 11th Avenues, from 34th Street to Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district. It is being transformed into a public park, part of which is to open in June 2009.The project 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.
The elevated rail line, which opened in 1934, was originally designed to replace street tracks that led to many pedestrian deaths. The High Line was built to last -- it can support four fully loaded freight trains -- but it was gradually replaced by trucks and an interstate highway system.
In 1970, the High Line was cut at Bank Street, and 10 years later the route closed entirely. The owner at the time, Conrail, was happy to surrender the line to Peter Obletz, a visionary whose hopes for resurrecting local passenger rail service ultimately fizzled.
The new High Line park, designed by an architectural team from Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will offer a retreat from street life, a bucolic space floating 30 feet in the air with Hudson River views. Yet it will retain 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 in the 1990s into a $170 million project -- is being built at all is a marvel.
Much of the designers' work has been devoted to seeking a balance between preserving what one called "the romance of the ruin" -- wild grasses growing up through the metal skeleton of rails and rivets -- and creating a fresh green corridor for pedestrians. (The High Line is currently off limits.)
Condominiums, hotels and office buildings designed by architectural talent like Jean Nouvel, Annabelle Selldorf, Renzo Piano, and the Della Valle Bernheimer firm are sprouting along the park's span. André Balazs's 18-story Standard Hotel, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, is the only new building that rises directly over the elevated park. The towering structure is supported on massive concrete pillars, while a ground-floor restaurant and garden cafe are tucked underneath the High Line's hefty steel frame.
But some developers are feeling discomfort 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.
-
Renovated High Line Now Open for Strolling
By ROBIN POGREBIN
June 9, 2009
High Line Poised to Receive Visitors
By ROBIN POGREBIN; COMPILED BY DAVE ITZKOFF
June 5, 2009
Seeing the Hudson River Through 700 Windows
By CAROL VOGEL
May 22, 2009
Plan for Taller Tower in Meatpacking District Draws Critics
By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
April 29, 2009
Industrial Sleek (a Park Runs Through It)
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
April 9, 2009
Dia Art Foundation Calls Off Museum Project
By CAROL VOGEL
October 25, 2006
-
Polshek Partnership’s project for a Standard Hotel.
Richard Drew/Associated Press
