Man it's hard to find shade in NYC! Unfortunately, green oases are few and far between: Sure we have a gem (well...) of a parks system, but we're in dire need of more green space. A good start would be to retain green spaces for mixed use or simply as parks. A truly amazing and unknown example in Manhattan is the High Line. A former commerical elevated track, it was put out of serivce as trucks became the dominant form of delivering goods. One and 1/2 miles long, it runs from from 34th Street to Gansevoort Street on the West Side of Manhattan. The following is from a April 2006 NY times article: "Twenty years [after being shut down], it had devolved into wildness, a flower-strewn stretch of prairie perched above the newly fashionable streets of the meatpacking district, West Chelsea and Clinton. It was just that wildness that made a certain segment of New York fall madly in love with it, particularly when they learned that Mayor Giuliani and various Chelsea landlords wanted it razed." But it didn't happen-instead a movement called
Friends of the High Line was formed to protect and restore it to a mixed-use
space for all to enjoy. Check out some the renderings by the architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro under Preliminiary Designs-pretty incredible. The group's benefit was last nite; they've already broken ground on this project, so I cannot wait to see the results. Here's a
map of the High line route
Man it's hard to find shade in NYC! Unfortunately, green oases are few and far between: Sure we have a gem (well...) of a parks system, but we're in dire need of more green space. A good start would be to retain green spaces for mixed use or simply as parks. A truly amazing and unknown example in Manhattan is the High Line. A former commerical elevated track, it was put out of serivce as trucks became the dominant form of delivering goods. One and 1/2 miles long, it runs from from 34th Street to Gansevoort Street on the West Side of Manhattan. The following is from a April 2006 NY times article: "Twenty years [after being shut down], it had devolved into wildness, a flower-strewn stretch of prairie perched above the newly fashionable streets of the meatpacking district, West Chelsea and Clinton. It was just that wildness that made a certain segment of New York fall madly in love with it, particularly when they learned that Mayor Giuliani and various Chelsea landlords wanted it razed." But it didn't happen-instead a movement called Friends of the High Line was formed to protect and restore it to a mixed-use
space for all to enjoy. Check out some the renderings by the architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro under Preliminiary Designs-pretty incredible. The group's benefit was last nite; they've already broken ground on this project, so I cannot wait to see the results. Here's a map of the High line route
