Kander and Ebb’s famous song, “New York, New York” talks about New York being the place where you can make “a brand new start of it” and wake up to find yourself “number one, top of the heap, king of the hill.”
By Bill Lawyer
Kander and Ebb’s famous song, “New York, New York” talks about New York being the place where you can make “a brand new start of it” and wake up to find yourself “number one, top of the heap, king of the hill.”
Well, that in a nutshell, is the story of New York City’s High Line Park.
The High Line is the mile-and-a-half linear park that starts at the corner of Gansevoort and Washington streets, deep on the west side of the West Village. It ends by 34th Street and 12th Avenue. It takes up 6.7 acres of what might be considered prime Manhattan real estate. But by being there, it has more than doubled the real estate value along its path. New high-rise buildings are going up right and left.
Built in three phases, starting in 2006, the final phase opened in late September. Some 10,000 people were on hand to celebrate.
The park is 25 to 30 feet above ground level. It ranges from 30 to 80 feet in width. That’s because it’s located on what used to be a raised railroad track trestle. The tracks were constructed in the 1930s to get freight to the industrial and commercial establishments in lower Manhattan. Business boomed until the 1960s, when America’s network of interstate highways was constructed. Rail could no longer compete with trucks, and the last trainload of goods arrived in 1980. Through an amazing combination of hard work, cooperation, and ingenious urban planning, nearly all the track was saved, and turned into today’s High Line Park.
While the official opening of phase three has already occurred, there’s still work to be done. The renovation of a rail spur at 30th Street will be completed next year. Along with landscaping, the spur will have a multi-purpose events space.
And, the walkway from 30th to 34th Street will have additional plantings, while allowing some of the “self-planted” perennials to remain. The park designers want visitors to see what the “abandoned” High Line looked like back in 1999. Instead of an overgrown, weedy eyesore, they saw an abundance of natural open space with bees, birds, and butterflies.
As one walks northward along the path, three major observations stand out. First, the entire project conveys a sense of intelligent design as well as high quality materials and workmanship. This includes everything from the infrastructure to the details of benches, bleachers and signage, stairways, elevators, bathrooms, refreshment vendors, and opportunities for relaxing pauses to appreciate the verdant “aerial” setting.
The design includes a wide topographic range – with café seating below and viewing areas above. And in several places it has been significantly widened to accommodate events and activities.
Second, one is likely to exclaim – “this is one really neat green roof.” Because the original railroad line was designed to hold very heavy loads, the structure can easily handle the lush trees, shrubs and all the other plants that line the way. To say nothing of the thousands of people who pass along.
Every day, park staff and volunteers can be found working in amongst the trees and shrubs, keeping everything well cared for.
They also find time to answer questions from visitors. One volunteer lovingly recounted her work with the snow-shoveling crews that were out last winter – one of the snowiest on record.
The third overall observation is that the park is much more than just a verdant walkway. It’s a community space, providing for the same kinds of experiences you would find at Bryant Park and Central Park – performance spaces, café tables, and food vendors, and areas for low-key physical activities such as yoga and fitness training. This writer saw several commercial photo shoots in progress.
A list of the park’s facilities, weekly events and activities can be found on the park’s excellent website, www.thehighline.org.
One of this walker’s favorites was the Diller-VonFurstenberg Sun Deck and Water Feature – located between 14th and 15th streets. Located by a long expanse of open views of the Hudson River and points west, the area is lined with chaise lounge chairs providing prime exposure to the afternoon sunlight. And, it has an unusually designed two inch deep“ fountain” that provides an on-going flow of water to simulate a beach-front scene – flip-flops optional.
Along the park one passes outdoor sculpture exhibits that somehow are tied into the history, location, or thematic elements of the High Line.
The newly opened section of the High Line provides a feature specifically designed for children — the Pershing Square Beams. To create this play area, a volunteer explained, the cement decking that previously held up the track ballast was removed. This revealed the steel girders that make up the park’s structural form. A walkway was then ramped down to allow children to enter the gird work.
All of these beams have been covered with a rubberized playground material for safety, and there are a number of interactive features: speaking tubes, periscopes, and what they call the “gopher hole,” where children can go into the hole and then stick their head up in the planting beds.
Luckily, these gophers won’t be whacked by the gardeners.
Overall one’s impression of the park is that it really works – it brings together the vibrancy of the city with the need for city-folk to slow down and (literally) smell the roses. And feel like they’re “king of the hill.”
