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Old Posted Nov 1, 2006, 1:18 PM
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Smile NEW YORK | Redevelopment of the High Line

The redevelopment of the elevated rail line on Manhattan's west side into a park has begun. Below are some images taken from the site of Friends of the High Line...
http://www.thehighline.org




Rails, embedded in concrete, await removal at 13th Street, looking South




Soil and gravel ballast, after rails have been removed at 14th Street




Gravel ballast is piled up at 17th Street, where the High Line narrows




Wooden railroad ties are piled up for removal




High Line spurs across 10th Avenue, looking South




Removal of gravel ballast exposes the top layer of concrete




Rails are stored and stacked




All rail sections have been mapped and tagged prior to removal




Frank Gehry's IAC Headquarters, under construction on 19th Street




Looking North from 19th Street where the High Line narrows










A front-end loader is lifted onto the High Line for the beginning of Site Preparation
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Old Posted Nov 1, 2006, 1:43 PM
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An idea of what the completed project could look like...
http://www.thehighline.org/design/pr...arydesign.html





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Old Posted Nov 1, 2006, 2:04 PM
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Old Posted Nov 5, 2006, 2:02 AM
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This is such a friggin' cool project.

What is the 'open to public' date?
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Old Posted Nov 5, 2006, 1:21 PM
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Originally Posted by WonderlandPark
This is such a friggin' cool project.
What is the 'open to public' date?
It really is one of the coolest projects underway in New York right now, even though we don't talk about it much. It will be sort of an urban version of the boardwalk/promenade/whatever else they can cram up there.

As far as opening, here's a little on that from the press release:

Quote:
This first section of the park will run from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street, and is projected to open in Spring 2008.

Construction will start with site preparation (2006-7), which includes removal of rail tracks and ballast, comprehensive waterproofing, and stripping and painting of all steel. This will be followed by construction of the public landscape (2007-8), which includes access systems (stairs and elevators), pathways, plantings, seating, lighting, safety enhancements and other features. A preliminary design for the first phase of the High Line's transformation, by the design team of Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, can be viewed at www.thehighline.org. The design will continue to evolve as the project moves through site preparation to the start of construction of the public landscape.
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Old Posted Nov 5, 2006, 1:27 PM
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Old Posted Nov 5, 2006, 6:28 PM
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Chelsea Now

November 3 — November 9, 2006

Camera kids capture High Line and ’hood

By Lawrence Lerner

Corinne Stonebraker doesn’t usually let her 4-year-old brother, Jonas, play with her toys. But this summer, the budding 7-year-old photographer from Jackson Heights, Queens, was all too happy to let him ride her scooter as she snapped photos of him in various spots near the High Line.

“I thought it was really cool to be a photographer. I took pictures of lots of things,” said Stonebraker, whose parents are ardent supporters of Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit dedicated to converting the railway into a 1.4-mile elevated park. Stonebraker takes art classes in Chelsea, where her parents met at a School of Visual Arts program on 21st St. and where they frequently return; Chelsea remains very much a part of their lives.

Stonebraker was part of a special project run by F.H.L., which teamed up with Fujifilm this summer to give one-time-use cameras to kids who live and play in the High Line neighborhoods of the West Village and Chelsea. The project culminated in an online exhibit at Friends of the High Line’s Web site, along with an exhibit of more than 80 photos in the Concourse Gallery at Chelsea Market, which runs through Nov. 12.

The approximately 100 children from age 3 to 12 who took part came from The Hudson Guild and Chelsea Recreation Center summer camps, as well as from families who have been longtime supporters of F.H.L. More than half reside in the Chelsea Elliot and Fulton Houses, nearby public housing.
“What’s important is to acknowledge everyone in the High Line neighborhoods,” said Meredith Taylor, the special projects manager for F.H.L. who ran the photo project. “To do that well, you need to approach kids with a variety of experiences.”

F.H.L. had a simple goal in mind when it conceived the project: Rather than offer a photo class, it wanted to experiment by putting cameras in the hands of kids and letting them run wild, giving them full control of what to photograph and how.

“We wanted to allow kids to show us the neighborhoods through their eyes, to show us what is important to them, and to show another angle besides the restaurants and boutiques now associated with the area,” said Taylor.

The result was an array of images whose breadth and quality impressed all of the adults involved.

“These kids are taking all kinds of shots — of their families, the neighborhood, where they play,” said Michael Ginsburg, director of marketing and events at Chelsea Market, who helped oversee the exhibit. “The final product is not childish but childlike, which, if you think about it, is what we all strive to be. We do a lot of kids shows, and I think we got really good photos in this one.”

Not surprisingly, being part of the process was as important for the kids as the final outcome. According to Erin Vega, coordinator of the Chelsea Recreation Center Summer Camp, merely being in possession of a camera was enough to make most of the children giddy.

“Kids aren’t usually trusted with cameras. Adults are too worried they’ll break them or push the wrong button and waste film,” she said. “Our kids treated the cameras very well because someone trusted them. They took great care taking pictures because they felt like it was an important thing they were chosen to do. Just holding a camera with their name on it made them smile.”

The photo project was part of F.H.L.’s larger children’s education initiative, which is now in its fifth year and has taken the organization into neighborhood afterschool programs and, as of this year, into High Line-area schools, such as the New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies.

“We teach kids about the history of the High Line, do art projects and build models with them, and talk about the plant life up there,” said Taylor. “We also talk about why it was built in the first place and how the community came together to preserve it as a park.”

By working with children, F.H.L. hopes to cultivate a diverse range of park users now, which Taylor insists will pay off in the long run.

“When the High Line finally opens, we hope it will attract all kinds of people: people who are railroad buffs, people who go to art galleries, kids from the Chelsea and Fulton Houses who bring their parents, our e-mail list supporters, all kinds of folks. By educating people about the High Line now, hopefully all those people will come and use the park.”
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Old Posted Nov 6, 2006, 12:34 AM
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Those kids get much respect for me, and so does whoever came up with the idea for that project.
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Old Posted Nov 6, 2006, 1:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Lecom
Those kids get much respect for me, and so does whoever came up with the idea for that project.
It was me, so thanks...
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Old Posted Nov 7, 2006, 6:02 AM
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wow thats very impressive!!! but i still think gehrys building is butt ugly!!! but this is indeed a very cool project
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Old Posted Nov 8, 2006, 1:09 AM
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Pigeons Are Disturbing High Line Development

October 26, 2006



High Line photos aren't exactly rare, but, since we happened to be on a nearby roof recently, we took a few.

It looks like we were onto something. According to Katie Lorah, media and project manager for Friends of the High Line, a new construction phase has begun. Deterring birds is one aspect of it: Pigeons are roosting in the beams, damaging concrete and steel and creating "unpleasant" conditions below. To read about the new phase, called "Site Preparation," check out this week's newsletter. http://www.thehighline.org/newslette...6.html#story04




And the mess under the High Line is the footprint for Andre Balazs' new hotel, The Standard, which will jut through the elevated park.
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Old Posted Nov 28, 2006, 5:10 PM
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NY Times

Whitney’s Expansion Plans Are Shifting South, to the Meatpacking District



Whitney Museum is planning a branch at the High Line park


By CAROL VOGEL
November 28, 2006

A month after the Dia Art Foundation scrapped its plans to open a museum at the entrance to the High Line, the abandoned elevated railway line that the city is transforming into a public park, the Whitney Museum of American Art has signed on to take its place and build a satellite institution of its own downtown.

The Whitney recently reached a conditional agreement on Wednesday night with the city’s Economic Development Corporation to buy the city-owned site, at Gansevoort and Washington streets, officials at the museum said yesterday. Plans call for the new museum to be at least twice the size of the Whitney’s home on Madison Avenue at 75th Street, they said, and to be finished within the next five years.

The deal, which has still to go through a public review process before it is final, puts an end to the Whitney’s plan to for a nine-story addition by the architect Renzo Piano that would connect to the museum’s original 1966 Marcel Breuer building via a series of glass bridges. It will be the third time in 11 years that the museum has commissioned a celebrity architect to design a major expansion to its landmark building, only to pull out.

“This is a more prudent step to take,” Leonard A. Lauder, chairman of the Whitney’s board, said by telephone yesterday. “Yet it is an adventurous step. We think the new site will have a big enough impact so that it will become a destination.”

The museum’s director, Adam D. Weinberg, said the new museum would not only offer more gallery space but would also be less expensive. “We know it will be cheaper per square foot than uptown, but we don’t know what it will cost,” he said. (The uptown expansion was expected to cost more than $200 million.) Mr. Piano has agreed to design the new museum. Although no architectural plans have been drawn up, the future museum is loosely estimated to afford at least 200,000 square feet.

Kate D. Levin, the city’s cultural affairs commissioner, called the agreement “a wonderful moment” but cautioned, “It is a preliminary moment.” If all goes as planned, she said, “it will let a museum grow and flourish” as well as provide an anchor to the city’s High Line project.

In addition to attracting a broader audience, having a site downtown will allow the museum space to build larger galleries without the constraints of building in a historic district. Sweeping galleries are generally needed to show much of the latest art being produced today.

Compared with around 65,000 square feet of gallery space in the uptown Piano addition, the High Line site will have about 100,000 to 150,000 square feet of gallery space, Mr. Weinberg said. The current Breuer building has some 30,000 square feet.

Mr. Lauder said: “The key word here is footprint. We will be able to stage shows horizontally rather than vertically.” Previous uptown expansions jettisoned by the Whitney include a $37 million addition by Michael Graves canceled in 1985 and a $200 million design by Rem Koolhaas scrapped in 2003.

Mr. Piano’s project met with heated opposition from preservationists who objected to the elimination of brownstone facades on Madison Avenue, part of the Upper East Side Historic District. After the Whitney agreed to maintain that facade, the project was approved in July by the city’s Board of Standards.

In addition to a second site the Whitney is also planning to upgrade the Breuer building significantly, with improvements like new, double-glazed windows and a better climate control system, Mr. Lauder said.

“The Breuer building is now 40 years old, and a lot of technology has happened since it was built,” Mr. Lauder said. “It is our iconic building, and we are planning to put a lot of money into it.” While he said it was too early to say just how much “a lot” is, he estimated the cost of refurbishing the building at $20 million to $40 million.

While taking note of the creation of dual-site museums like the Tate in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Mr. Weinberg said the Whitney was hoping to invent a model of its own. “We are envisioning both sites will show contemporary and historic art,” he said.

The Whitney will continue to devote itself to American art, he said, but “it will be American art in the broadest sense seen within an international context.” In addition to providing room to spread out, he added, the downtown space will allow the museum to keep adding to its collection.

Mr. Weinberg said the museum intended to strengthen its performing arts, education and film programs, which will all be based downtown.

While Dia had planned to lease the downtown site from the city, the Whitney’s deal calls for buying 820 Washington Street and 555 West Street, abandoned shell structures adjacent to each another. The city will charge the Whitney roughly half the appraised value of the two buildings, said Jan Rothschild, a spokeswoman for the Whitney.

“We like the character and the grittiness of the neighborhood,” Mr. Weinberg said of the meatpacking district. “We want to keep the museum as low as possible.” Plans call for about 15,000 square feet of meat market space as well as offices for the High Line in the complex.

Rather than dwell on the death blow to the Piano addition, Whitney officials sought to portray the move as a homecoming of sorts. The institution, which began in Greenwich Village in 1918 as the Whitney Studio Club, became the Whitney Museum in 1931.


“We’re returning to our roots,” Mr. Weinberg said. “So much of the first half of our collection was made around 14th Street and below, and so many artists whose works we have live within a 20-block radius. We see this as reconnecting with the artists’ community.”
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Old Posted Nov 30, 2006, 5:24 AM
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As a kid, I learned to throw a baseball sneaking up on the highline with my dad. I'm so excited about this whole project... One of the most exciting urban projects in the nation... such a spectacular use.
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Old Posted Dec 22, 2006, 12:49 AM
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One of my favorites also. One more place to explore the city...

Chelsea Now



Above, a schematic rendering showing what W. 30th St. might look like with the High Line’s northern section redeveloped as a park. The view is looking west. On either side of the High Line, projected new development is shown. Below, an aerial map showing the High Line, with its northern section, in red, wrapping around the M.T.A. rail yards.




Northern exposure: High Line faces threat


By Lawrence Lerner
Volume Number 1 Issue Number 12 / December 15 - 21, 2006


If you thought preserving the High Line was a fait accompli, think again.

Last Thursday night, more than 150 people packed into Chelsea Market’s Community Room to hear an hour-long overview of the public planning process that will decide the fate of the elevated railway’s northern end, between 11th and 12th Aves. from 30th to 33rd Sts., where it loops around the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Western Rail Yards.

The presentation was part of a push by Friends of the High Line — the nonprofit organization that helped transform the rail viaduct into an elevated park — to keep the structure intact as the city prepares to develop design guidelines and accept requests for proposals for redevelopment, or R.F.P.’s, for the western yards.

“The process is just starting, and that’s why we’re trying to get out in front of it, so the city and the Hudson Yards Development Corporation can hear from supporters of the High Line that they want this portion saved and intact,” said F.H.L. co-founder Robert Hammond to a roomful of applause.

In November 2004, the city acquired the southern portion of the High Line, between Gansevoort and 30th Sts., from CSX Transportation. In June 2005, the two parties secured approval to include the High Line in the federal Rails-to-Trails program, saving it from the wrecking ball and ensuring its conversion into a unique public space for generations to come. But with the proposed Jets stadium plan recently defeated and the future of the Western Rail Yards in doubt at the time, the city and CSX left the High Line’s northern section out of the deal.

Whether the city plans to acquire that portion of the High Line remains unclear. A statement released by John Gallagher, the mayor’s first deputy press secretary, said only this much: “Transfer of ownership from CSX to the city of the portion of the High Line that runs over the M.T.A.’s rail yards requires the participation and consent of the M.T.A., which to date has not been received. The city and the M.T.A. are currently engaged in a joint planning process for the rail yards.
That process, which seeks to balance a variety of important public priorities, will culminate in review by the City Council.”

Gallagher offered no further comment on why the Bloomberg administration is keeping its desire and intent for the High Line north of 30th St. a well-guarded secret.

Meanwhile, this northern section remains vulnerable to alteration or outright demolition, according to Hammond.

“We could see parts of the High Line north of 30th St. taken down, rerouted and put back up, and there are lots of reasons why we think the original structure should remain intact,” he said. “One, we think it’s a slippery slope once you start tearing it down. There’s also no guarantee what you get when it comes back. Do you take off some of the railings and just paste them onto the side of the buildings? To me, that’s not the High Line. That just messes with its integrity.”

In an interview after the presentation, Josh David, F.H.L.’s other co-founder, offered another, equally important reason for the High Line to remain intact.

“The easement needs to be continuous for the portion of the High Line north of 30th St. to be eligible for the federal Rails-to-Trails program,” he said. Achieving that status will enable this northern section to be converted into a public park, as it has been from 30th St. down to Gansevoort St., according to David.

F.H.L. is all too aware that the Hudson Yards redevelopment process is about to pick up steam. During the next six months, Hudson Yards Development Corporation will develop planning and design guidelines for the Western Rail Yards, and will solicit R.F.P.’s for two months thereafter. After the M.TA. evaluates the proposals, a selection committee will choose the winners, who will then subject their plans to the city’s uniform land use review procedure, or ULURP, which includes an environmental impact assessment. The plans then go through a public review process before being kicked back to City Planning for final approval.

According to David, the next three to six months are critical.

“We’re arguing that preservation of the High Line should be in those guidelines not only to ensure its integrity into the future but so developers have it in mind as they submit their R.F.P.’s,” he said. “Let’s not wait until the public review process to ensure the High Line is preserved. Its requirements need time to be considered for it to work successfully in any grand development scheme, and we’ll miss a significant amount of planning time if we tack it on as an afterthought.”

F.H.L. also believes that keeping the northern section of the High Line standing makes good economic sense for New York City. John Alschuler, a real estate and public policy consultant who has worked with F.H.L. in the past, made the organization’s case at Thursday night’s forum.

“In 2002, my firm, HR&A, did an economic feasibility study to convince the city to save the High Line. The city has invested $100 million in the structure, and we projected the city will reap more than $250 million in incremental additional tax revenue over the next 20 years due to increased land values around the High Line,” he said. “That’s a good investment, and it means the city has more money to put into public services. Therefore, it only makes sense for the city to get the High Line’s full value by connecting it together with the northern end.”

Alschuler insisted that the High Line is also helping land owners, such as the M.T.A., by making its land more valuable to the tune of $75 million to $100 million, money it can put into the subway, Metro North and the Long Island Railroad.

“The High Line is a win-win-win. It’s good for the city and, therefore, the community, as well as the open-space park system and land owners,” he said. “It is a rare example when everyone’s interests come together nicely.”

The northern end of the High Line is also special for a number of other reasons, according to Alschuler, David and Hammond.

They stress that the old rail viaduct occupies a critical location, a place where a number of other open public spaces come together in the network stipulated by the Hudson Yards rezoning plan — including Hudson River Park and the park area slated to run midblock between 34th and 41st Sts. The High Line, they add, will also connect major civic facilities, such as the redeveloped Javits Center and the new Moynihan Station, while knitting together the West Chelsea and Hudson Yards districts.

Finally, the Hudson Yards portion of the old railway comprises 31 percent of the entire High Line, a fact few people are aware of, said David.

“And from an urban design perspective, its length and incredible views of the Hudson River make it unique,” David said of the High Line’s sweeping section around the rail yards. “The fact that the High Line is elevated makes its views unparalleled.”

And for David and his colleagues, preserving the High Line as a historical marker is also crucial, especially as it relates to New York City’s past urban-planning fiascoes.

“The High Line is irreplaceable,” he stressed. “Once the Hudson Yards is redeveloped, there will be no trace of its 100-year history except for the High Line. That means the High Line has the potential to function as important historical context for the newly developed area.

“Amid all this, it’s important to remember we have a sad analogy only a few blocks away in the 1965 demolished Penn Station,” David continued. “That is a glaring example of poor urban planning that I hope we don’t repeat here.”
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Old Posted Dec 23, 2006, 12:23 AM
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What a great project. If I understand it correctly, the rail line actually runs through existing buildings, right? Can you imagine living in a building, getting in the elevator, and going not to the bottom floor, but to the 2nd or 3rd and being able to go outside and jog?

Indianapolis has the Monon. It's an old rail line that was converted into a hike/bike path. It's always packed, property values along the Monon have increased, and developers are clamoring to build near it.

The old rail line in Mineral Wells, TX was converted into a hike/bike trail and has become pretty popular.

There's an abandoned line in Houston that runs from downtown into the Heights...I think this line would be an excellent conversion opportunity.
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Old Posted Dec 23, 2006, 1:33 PM
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Originally Posted by Tex1899 View Post
What a great project. If I understand it correctly, the rail line actually runs through existing buildings, right? Can you imagine living in a building, getting in the elevator, and going not to the bottom floor, but to the 2nd or 3rd and being able to go outside and jog?

Indianapolis has the Monon. It's an old rail line that was converted into a hike/bike path. It's always packed, property values along the Monon have increased, and developers are clamoring to build near it.
This project is pretty similar. There will be more built up around the high line as well.

View east down 31st ST







More high line (older pics)...

















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Old Posted Dec 25, 2006, 12:08 PM
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NY Times

On the High Line, Solitude Is Pretty Crowded



Rendering by Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro/Courtesy the City of New York. Like moths to a flame, developers are being drawn to the yet-unbuilt High Line elevated garden.




Polshek Partnership’s project for a Standard Hotel.




A preliminary design for the garden, with one of its public stairways; above far right, Neil Denari’s cantilevered apartment house design.



By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
December 24, 2006

WE New Yorkers have a morbid fascination with pinpointing the death of a neighborhood scene. You wonder, for example, exactly when the seeds were planted for SoHo’s grim destiny as an open-air mall. Was it 1971, when Leo Castelli opened his downtown gallery? The advent of Dean & Deluca’s overpriced cheeses? Victoria’s Secret underwear displays?

But the artists who bemoaned SoHo’s gradual reinvention as a tourist mecca in the 1980s would have been dumbstruck by the pace of gentrification wrought by the High Line, an abandoned stretch of elevated railway tracks that will be transformed into a garden walkway from the meatpacking district to Chelsea.

Even before local activists picked the project’s design team, Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, two years ago, developers had begun circling the site like vultures. Today, the High Line risks being devoured by a string of developments, including a dozen or more luxury towers, a new branch of the Whitney Museum of American Art and a Standard Hotel. Already the area is a mix of the fashionable and the tacky, with tourists tottering from boutiques to nightclubs across its cobblestone streets, even as they recoil from the occasional whiff of raw meat.

Not all of these are run-of-the-mill development projects: they include potential designs by renowned talents including Renzo Piano and the Polshek Partnership. And even more promising, a few younger, relatively unknown talents like Neil Denari and Work Architecture are getting the opportunity to design major projects.

But the frenzied activity surrounding the High Line shows how radically the development climate in Manhattan has accelerated. No longer content to allow gentrification to proceed at its own tentative pace, developers now view even the humblest civic undertaking as a potential gold mine. City planners who once had to coax developers to build in rundown neighborhoods are groping for strategies to keep them at bay. Pretty much everyone who has walked the length of the weed-choked High Line agrees that its magic arises largely from its isolation. Carving its way through the urban fabric two to three stories above ground, it is framed mostly by the backs of buildings and billboards, with occasional views opening out to the Hudson or across Manhattan.

The battle to preserve that ambience is being waged street corner by street corner, foot by foot. Last summer the city announced its final zoning regulations for the area, a document that is reassuring for its meticulousness. The guidelines require setbacks to protect some major view corridors; at other points, buildings are allowed to shoot straight up to maintain the sense of compression that is part of the High Line’s charm. The core of several blocks, meanwhile, will remain zoned for manufacturing in the hope of maintaining some of the area’s character.

In rare cases, the Department of City Planning has negotiated directly with developers and their architects on a particularly difficult site. In a design by Mr. Denari for a residential tower, city officials allowed him to cantilever his building several feet over the High Line to compensate for his site’s tiny footprint. In the rather dazzling result, the proposed tower gracefully bulges out over the elevated garden, a vertical tear appearing at its center as if the building were straining to squeeze into its allotted space. Views from the apartments would open up and down the length of the High Line. From below, the building would swell out over the garden walkway, adding a sense of vertigo.

But as long as they conform to the new zoning codes, the city will have little control over the form and appearance of most of the designs. And so far, few projects have risen to the standard of Mr. Denari’s. Even more crucial, perhaps, is the question of access. As Richard Scofidio, one of the architects of the High Line, put it: “We don’t want hotels putting wicker chairs and tables all over the garden. We want it to feel that it belongs to everybody.”

Striving to maintain that feel, the city has wisely limited the number of entry points. It will create four public stairways between Gansevoort and 20th Streets in the first phase.

Thankfully, the city has also limited the width of connections to the High Line from adjoining buildings to a maximum of five and a half feet. That way, any entry point from a specific building would function more as a bridge than an extension of the High Line.


With guidelines in place, it will now be up to the Parks Department to determine which of the new buildings will get direct access to the garden. Already, many of the residential developers have sought permission to build lobbies that would open onto the High Line. This would undo the spirit of the project, giving residents of a few luxury towers a connection to the site that others would not share. They should use the public stairs like the rest of us.

So far, there is no reason to doubt that the city will try to do the right thing. The partnership between city planners and High Line advocates has been one of the most sincere efforts in recent memory to protect the public interest from an onslaught of commercialization. And the Parks Department is working in partnership with Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit group that conceived the idea.

But no planner can reverse the social and economic changes that are reconfiguring the city’s identity. And the question next year will be what happens on the ground, as the neighborhood fills up with the usual cellphone stores, health clubs and Starbucks. What kind of sanctuary will the High Line be? Are we simply deluding ourselves into believing we can slow the pace of the inevitable?
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  #18  
Old Posted Dec 25, 2006, 7:58 PM
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Lecom Lecom is offline
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I think that private lobbies opening onto the High Line should be allowed, provided that every such project includes an additional easily accessible public entry point. Such lobbies would bring vibrancy to the High Line, and allow for more sought-after projects, which would bring more development and developers to the area.
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Old Posted Dec 26, 2006, 2:15 PM
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Originally Posted by Lecom View Post
I think that private lobbies opening onto the High Line should be allowed, provided that every such project includes an additional easily accessible public entry point. Such lobbies would bring vibrancy to the High Line, and allow for more sought-after projects, which would bring more development and developers to the area.
That's the sort of thing they are trying to prevent:

Quote:
Like moths to a flame, developers are being drawn to the yet-unbuilt High Line elevated garden.......the frenzied activity surrounding the High Line shows how radically the development climate in Manhattan has accelerated. No longer content to allow gentrification to proceed at its own tentative pace, developers now view even the humblest civic undertaking as a potential gold mine. City planners who once had to coax developers to build in rundown neighborhoods are groping for strategies to keep them at bay.
The developers are going to be there regardless, its "unexplored" territory. Having private lobbies there sort of defeats the purpose and feel of what they are trying to create with the park. You can get private lobbies anywhere else in Manhattan or the rest of the city. I agree with the article:

Quote:
They should use the public stairs like the rest of us.....Thankfully, the city has also limited the width of connections to the High Line from adjoining buildings to a maximum of five and a half feet. That way, any entry point from a specific building would function more as a bridge than an extension of the High Line.
All good points. That way the High Line remains apart from everything else, its own space. I can hardly wait until it opens.
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  #20  
Old Posted Dec 27, 2006, 5:02 AM
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Originally Posted by NYguy View Post
An idea of what the completed project could look like...
http://www.thehighline.org/design/pr...arydesign.html





Lools like a cool looking project. I like how it's all outdoors or at least a outdoor feel.
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