Exploring The High Line
By Lucas Compan
From Freights to Flowers
There are few places more pleasant than a sunny afternoon on the High Line. NYC's only elevated park is one of Manhattan’s most popular destinations, and it's easy to see why. A rail track that went out of use in 1980, the High Line was resurrected as a 1.45-mile-long (2,33 km) green space in 2009, running from Hudson Yards to the Meatpacking District. Today it’s an urbanite’s playground planted with wildflowers and grasses
The High Line starts at the meatpacking district. photo: lucas compan
The High Line Park is an amazing suspended park, built on the disused southern portion of the West Side Line running to the Lower West Side of Manhattan. It runs from Gansevoort Street – three blocks below 14th Street – in the Meatpacking District, through Chelsea, to the northern edge of the West Side (Hudson Yards) on 34th Street near the Javits Convention Center.
walking along the high line is a great thing to do in new york city.
The High Line (also known as the High Line Park) is a 1.45-mile-long (2.33km) New York City linear park built in Manhattan on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad spur called West Side Line.
Inspired by the 3-mile (4.8-kilometer) Promenade plantée (tree-lined walkway), a similar project in Paris completed in 1993, the High Line has been redesigned as an aerial greenway and rails-to-rails park.
The third phase spur extends above 30th Street to Tenth Avenue. Formerly, the West Side Line went as far south as a railroad terminal to Spring Street just north of Canal Street; however, most of the lower section was demolished in 1960, with another small portion of the lower section being demolished in 1991.
life nurtures where before were just train tracks – kept in this section as a mark of history. photo: lucas compan
Gansenvoort
At the Gansenvoort Street end, which runs north-south, the stub end over Gansevoort Street is named the Tiffany and Co. Foundation Overlook, dedicated in July 2012; the foundation was a major backer of the park. Then, it passes under The Standard hotel, and through a passage at 14th Street. At 14th Street, the High Line is split into two sides of different elevations; the Diller-Von Furstenberg Water Feature, opened in 2010, is featured on the lower side, and a sundeck on the upper side.
The new Whitney Museum of American Art and the southern tip of the High Line as seen from the intersection of Gansevoort and Washington streets. photo credit: Hyperallergic
Gaservoort section of the high line, at the meatpacking district, seen from the Whitney Museum of American Art. Photo: lucas compan
The Whitney Museum of American Art. the big ship-shaped building on the background used to be the national biscuit company, also known as Nabisco, where the famous Oreo was invented in 1912 – now the google new york hq. photo: lucas compan
American Native Planting
Most of the planting, which includes 210 species, is of rugged meadow plants, including clump-forming grasses, liatris, and coneflowers, with scattered stands of sumac and smokebush, but not limited to American natives. At the Gansevoort Street end, a grove of mixed species of birch already provides some dappled shade by late afternoon.
Ipê timber for the built-in benches has come from a managed forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, to ensure sustainable use and the conservation of biological diversity, water resources, and fragile ecosystems.
Repurposing of the railway into an urban park began construction in 2006, with the first phase opening in 2009, and the second phase opening in 2011. The third and final phase officially opened to the public on September 21, 2014. A short stub above Tenth Avenue and 30th Street, opened in 2017. photo: lucas compan
Repurposing of the railway into an urban park began construction in 2006, with the first phase opening in 2009, and the second phase opening in 2011. The third and final phase officially opened to the public on September 21, 2014. A short stub above Tenth Avenue and 30th Street, opened in 2017, once the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project and Hudson Yard 7 train final stop were completed. The project has spurred real estate development in the neighborhoods that lie along the line. As of September 2016 the park gets nearly 9 million visitors annually.
springtime at the high line: colors and flowers all the way. photo: lucas compan
view of the empire state building and chelsea from the high line. photo: lucas compan
summertime: reading a good book or just chilling out at the high line is great plan. photo: lucas compan
in the middle of the chaotic manhattan, you can find a peaceful environment at the high line. photo: lucas compan
The Meatpacking District and the film “Coyote Ugly”
Hogs and Heifers – Just before you walk underneath another building straddling the High Line, look down to the street on your right. Opened in 1992, when rent in the Meatpacking was still very low, Hogs and Heifers (hogs as in Harley motorcycles and heifers, which means virgin cows) was a neighborhood institution almost guaranteed to smell like stale beer and something worse, relatively cheap beer, attractive and lightly dressed bartenders, who along with patrons, are known for dancing on the bar.
History – After a drunk patron started a tradition by throwing her bra onto the bar, the New York Hogs and Heifers' walls and ceilings were covered with approximately 18,000 bras, including one from Julia Roberts, whose photo is also on the wall. Allan Dell, the owner, said that he wanted the walls to be covered in stuff and the bar to have the look and feel of a gin mill.
Hogs and Heifers' bartenders, and some patrons, originally danced on the bar, but in 1997 the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs raided and briefly closed the establishment for violating a regulation that required a cabaret license in order to permit dancing.
Hogs and Heifers' New York location closed in the summer of 2015 due to a rent increase
former Hogs & Heifers’ entrance at the meatpacking district. Photo: lucas compan (2011)
bartenders dancing at the bar. Photo: lucas compan (2011)
When you walked inside to see the mountainous collection of bras donated over the years by female patrons, including Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts. Paul McCartney is believed to have danced on the bar. The movie Coyote Ugly (watch the trailer) was filmed right down the street and many credit Hogs and Heifers with inspiring the rather forgetful flick. The owners of Coyote Ugly in the East Village (First Avenue and 10th Street) would disagree. Apparently, the filmmakers weren’t impressed with the the actual Coyote bar and wanted to use Hogs and Heifers. The filmmakers were refused permission to film there when they refused to change the name of the film. Instead, they set up a fake bar to look like Hogs and Heifers down the street. Now on the same spot of the former bar (at 859 Washington Street) there is a high-end fashion store.
Chelsea Market
Then, the High Line passes under the Chelsea Market, a food hall, at 15th Street. A spur connecting the viaduct to the National Biscuit Company building splits off at 16th Street; this spur is closed to the public. The Tenth Avenue Square, an amphitheater located on the viaduct, is at 17th Street, where the High Line cross over Tenth Avenue from southeast to northwest. At 23rd Street, there is the 23rd Street Lawn, a lawn where visitors can rest. Then, between 25th and 26th Streets, a ramp takes visitors above the viaduct, with a scenic overlook facing east at 26th Street. The Philip A. and Lisa Maria Falcone Flyover, as it is called, is named after two major donors to the park
Chelsea Market captured from The High Line. A block long and a block wide and just a short walk from the Hudson River in the area known as the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Chelsea Market has become in just fifteen years one of the greatest indoor food halls of the world, with more than thirty-five vendors purveying everything from soup to nuts, wine to coffee, cheese to cheesecake. Attracting 6 million national and international visitors annually, it is one of the most trafficked, and written-about, destinations of any kind in New York City. Chelsea Market is a neighborhood market with a global perspective. Photo: lucas Compan
The area has always been the locus of food in the city, beginning with the Algonquin Indians, who traded their game and crops on the banks of the Hudson River at this same spot. The trains of the High Line once served the wholesale butchers who lined the streets beneath the tracks and cooled their provisions with blocks of Hudson River ice, and the National Biscuit Company established its factory—now reclaimed as the Chelsea Market—here to take advantage of the butchers’ lard in the nineteenth century. This long history—and the stripped-down brick architecture of the building—gives the Market a unique character. For foodies and even casual travelers, it is possible to enter the Market at one end in the morning and not exit the other until lunchtime, without ever growing bored—and certainly without ever going hungry. Photo: lucas compan
The High Line Effect
The success of the High Line in New York City has encouraged the leaders of other cities, such as Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, who see it as "a symbol and catalyst" for gentrifying neighborhoods.
Several cities also have plans to renovate some railroad infrastructure into park land, including Philadelphia and St. Louis. In Chicago, where the Bloomingdale Trail, a 2.7-mile (4.3 km) long linear park on former railroad infrastructures, will run through several neighborhoods. In Queens, the Queensway, a proposed aerial rail trail, is being considered for reactivation along the right-of-way of the former LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch.
Other cities around the world are planning elevated rails-to-trails parks. One writer called this the "High Line effect."
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south and the Hudson River and West Street to the west, with the northern boundary variously described as 30th Street or 34th Street, and the eastern boundary as either Sixth Avenue or Fifth Avenue. To the north of Chelsea is the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, also known as "Clinton", as well as the Hudson Yards; to the northeast is the Garment District; to the east are NoMad and the Flatiron District; to the southwest is the Meatpacking District; and to the southeast is Greenwich Village and the West Village. photo: lucas compan
Chelsea
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south and the Hudson River and West Street to the west, with the northern boundary variously described as 30th Street or 34th Street, and the eastern boundary as either Sixth Avenue or Fifth Avenue. To the north of Chelsea is the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, also known as "Clinton", as well as the Hudson Yards; to the northeast is the Garment District; to the east are NoMad and the Flatiron District; to the southwest is the Meatpacking District; and to the southeast is Greenwich Village and the West Village.
brunch on sunday morning. photo: lucas compan (2016)
Real Estate Development
construction sites along the high line. Photo: lucas compan
The recycling of the railway into an urban park brought revitalization of Chelsea, which had been "gritty" and in generally poor condition in the late twentieth century.
It has also spurred real estate development in the neighborhoods that lie along the line. Residents who have bought apartments next to the High Line Park have adapted to its presence in varying ways, but most responses are positive; some, however, claim that the park became a "tourist-clogged catwalk" since it opened.The real estate boom has not been victimless, however, many well-established businesses in west Chelsea have closed due to loss of neighborhood customer base or rent increases.
Designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid but completed only after her death in 2016, this sinuous, metal and glass, chevron-patterned condominium located at 520 W. 28th Street, is her first building in New York City. The building’s official website notes that Hadid’s international body of work favors “graceful curves inspired by nature,” which this unusual building strives to capture. There are 39 residences and a sculpture deck will eventually open on the south side of the building. Picture taken from The High Line, Chelsea, Manhattan. Photo: Lucas compan
the impact of modern architecture along the high line is impressive. Photo: lucas compan
the section between hudson yards and hudson river. great spot to just sit, chat, and watch the sunset. photo: lucas compan
the new neighborhood “hudson yards” and the future “vessel” (grand opening: spring 2019)