High Line and Hudson Yards

 Chelsea residents and High Line neighbors Joshua David and Robert Hammond founded Friends of The High Line in 1999 with the goal of restoring the elevated tracks to public use. The section  of elevated line from the Garment District up to Penn Station was   converted into a fantastic park with lush landscaping, grassy areas, elevated views, art, and a nice escape from the chaos of the streets below.

 Section One of the Highline Park, opened in 2009, runs from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street.  Section Two, opened  in 2011  from West 20th Street to West 30th Street in Chelsea, added new landscape elements, and encouraged adjacent condo development. You can read about the these two sections in my older posts ( High Line  Part 1 and High Line part 2)

On September 21, 2014  the final  section  of the park  opened to West 34th street, near the Jacob Javits Center.   The extension brings the total length of the elevated park to 1.45 miles  (2.4 km).

 The final section put the finishing touch on what has become the most successful public-space transformation in the United States, if not the world.  The High Line attracts five million visitors a year, making it the second most visited cultural venue in the city.
 Michael Kimmelman   at "New York Times" said :  " If the newest, last stretch of the High Line doesn’t make you fall in love with New York all over again, I really don’t know what to say.... It’s hard to believe now that some New Yorkers once thought renovating the decrepit elevated rail line was a lousy idea.

Not since Central Park opened in 1857 has a park reshaped New Yorkers’ thinking about public space and the city more profoundly. Like Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim museum in Spain, it has spread a dream, albeit largely a pipe dream, around the world: how one exceptional design — in this case, a work of landscape architecture — might miraculously alter a whole neighborhood, even a whole city’s fortunes."

The final section  called  ‘High Line at the Railyards' offers picnic tables, movable levers, ramps, hidden spaces, and curving walkways. 
The vegetation and  planting scheme  attempt to emulate the natural landscape of the highline prior to the park design. 

The Evolution of God

Several original rail switches have been retrofitted with colorful signals, designed to be played with by future visitors."The Evolution of God ", thirteen abstract sculptures by Argentine artist Adrián Villar Rojas   punctuate the wild, self-seeded landscape of the High Line at the Rail Yards. 



That part of the park curves around Hudson Yards, a mammoth high-rise development that by 2024 will be home to more than a dozen new skyscrapers -   office and apartment towers, at least one of them to rise higher than the Empire State Building.  

In early 2014, real estate firm Massey Knakal announced a conceptual super tall building  with a 1.22 million square feet capacity and 108 stories   on the north side of 34th Street between Hudson Boulevard and Tenth Avenue.    It would be the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere if completed. The 52-story 10 Hudson Yards will be the first tower completed at the site.

It's currently under construction and on track for a late 2015 opening.
No wonder other cities all over the world plan   to create imitations to transform the urban environment   into  their own “parks in the sky”  London may top the list  with a garden bridge over the Thames. San Francisco is constructing a park on the roof of a bus and rail station, Rotterdam is converting an electric railway line built in the early 1900s into an elevated park.

Hudson Yards rendering

Hudson Yards development scheme

The  financial impact of High Line is  massive, attracting $2.2-billion in new economic activity and raising tax revenues by an estimated $980-million over the next two decades.
 There is one funny thing that I'd like to say at the very end of my story.  The New York Times, The New York Daily News, the Associated Press, ABC News, and The Wall Street Journal reported that  both  President Obama and  Mayor Bill de Blasio neglected to visit The High Line. Obama visited New York more than 70 times since 2009 when the first section of High Line was open.

But you should  visit the new High Line at the Rail Yards and see all of the incredible design for yourself above 30th street and 10th avenue! Or maybe you'd like to invest in the  Hudson Yards - !

Gramercy Park, the only one privately-owned park in Manhattan.

Gramercy Park  is one of the only one privately-owned park in Manhatten.  On a map of old farms prepared  in 1853 by Cornelius De Witt, the farm which included what is now Gramercy Park is designated as “Krom Messie". ” Its name is an Anglicized version of "krom moerasje" , Dutch for “little crooked swamp.”
On December 17, 1831 a deed by the real estate developer Samuel Ruggles established the plot of land between 3rd Avenue and Park Avenue South from 18th to 21st Streets as Gramercy Park.  

The fence appeared two years later and the original still stands. The  construction on the surrounding lots did not begin until the 1840s. The park was locked since 1844, the same year its trustees held their first formal meeting .
Gramercy Park is held in common– by the owners of the 39 surrounding structures.
At one time, the park was open to the public on Gramercy Day – which changed yearly, but was often the first Saturday in May. In 2007, the trustees announced that the park would no longer be open for Gramercy Day because it "had turned into a street fair".
The neighborhood was recognized as a historic district in 1966; also in 1966, properties on the east, west and south sides of the park were designated as landmarks.
Two keys are allocated to each of the original lots surrounding the park, and the owners may buy keys for a fee, which was originally $10 per key.

One hundred and fifty years ago, the first keys to the two-acre park  were   made of solid gold. Now they are made from a nickel alloy. Manufactured especially for the Gramercy Park shareholders by Medeco, the key is distinguished by an interesting intangible: It is virtually impossible to duplicate.  The locks are changed yearly.

There were  383   keys manufactured for park users in 2012.  The key costs $350 per year. If you lose a key  you have to pay$1200 for the replacement. Lose it again, and the next one costs $2,000.
The park rules are  very harsh: no dogs, no alcohol, no smoking, no bicycling, no hardball, no lawn furniture, no Frisbees, and   no feeding of any of the birds and squirrels.
The residences with park access are valued 10 percent higher than Gramercy-area properties without it. 
If you are not a resident there few ways for you  get inside the gates.  You can book a room at   the Gramercy Park hotel, which has 12  keys for guests to use. But please remember that the guests of  the Gramercy Park Hotel   are  not allowed into park unless accompanied by hotel staff.
Or you can join the church, synagogue, or one of the arts clubs   (as National Arts Club) that adjoins the park . 
In 2001 the president of the National Arts Club  Aldon James brought about 40 children, mostly minorities, into the park from the nearby school. The trustee  of the parkat the time, Sharen Benenson, called police alleging that the children were trespassing.  The police refused to take action. Later, a suit was filed against the park's administration in Federal Court.  The suit was settled out of court in 2003. Most of the children settled for $36,000 each, while one received $50,000.  

Read more:
Real Estate from New York Times: That’s Some Key: How Do You Get a Key to Gramercy Park?
 

High Line Park, Part 2

High Line Park, Part 1
The High Line is an elevated freight rail line transformed into a public park on Manhattan's West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and runs for 15 blocks from  Gansevoort Street, three blocks below West 14th Street    up to 30th Street.  Park is open daily, from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM and has multiple access points almost every two blocks, but only one restroom station  at the 16th Street access point. I wrote about the history of High line in the first part of my story.

     The park does not contain any recreational facilities and does not permit biking and rollerblading and dogs are not allowed.  Park is place for relaxation and meditation and provides visitors with panoramic views of NYC,  the Hudson River, and the New Jersey waterfront. Commuters  and morning joggers use High Line as a shortcut without traffic lights.

   You can relax  on the grass  to escape from the heat at summer.  A little patch of green in the middle of so much brick, concrete  and steel can be very soothing.  There is a sundeck  at 14th Street and  a  shallow skim of water that bubbles up over a section of the pathway  and you can put off  you shoes  and tiptoe through the cool water- it is really priceless on a hot summer day!

   There are many individual benches and nooks scattered about. There are nice  beach benches you can use to lounge. There's also two small theater like seating areas where you   can have a meal or just  do people watching.  

     The wood used on the High Line was harvested from a managed forest and has  life-span of up to 100 years. The High Line's landscape uses the same technology as a green roof. Plantings, mostly native  and    produced by local growers, create shade, oxygen, and habitat for insects and birds. Many of the 1930s railroad tracks are still in their original locations, integrated into the planting beds.

   The southern section between Gansevoort and West 12th Streets is more heavily planted than the rest of the park.  In 2013 High Line Art announced Busted, the HIGH LINE COMMISSION that includes figurative sculptures, celebratory portraits, and c monuments installed on the High Line.

The public is invited to participate in an open poll and vote online for a person who in their opinion should be commemorated in a monument to be installed on the High Line. 

     There are a lot of food vendors on the High Line. The earliest  to open at 9AM is  BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE at West 15. There is a full service seasonal open air café TERROIR AT THE PORCH,  also as West 15 . The cafe is open up till 9PM.

     Every Tuesday  from  6:30pm to 7:30pm between Tuesday, May 7 and Tuesday, September 24 there is a free High Line tour.  The tour starts   on the High Line at West 14th Street .

The only one modern building that was raised over and above the   park is Standard Hotel. The hotel was designed by Todd Schliemann and looks like an open book.

High Line lifts NYC residential property values. Between 2003 and 2011, nearby residential property values grew 103%, according to The New York Times.   
Blackhouse, a New York basedrel estate group  announced  this June  a plan to build Soori HighLine condo near High Line with  27 ultra-luxury apartments with interior pools, a Japanese restaurant and lobby bar. 

 

     Zaha Hadid, a famous Iraqi-British architect,  has a plan to build  an 11-story, luxury apartment with 37 units block near the second section of the High Line in Chelsea, at 520 West 28th Street. It will be her first project in New York.  In February 2013 Zaha  was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4.

     Inspired by  New York's success with its High Line park, Philadelphia plan  to redevelop an abandoned viaduct into an elevated urban park.  Chicago has a $91 million project  to convert BloomingdaleTrail into the public park.

     
     Other countries already have or plan to have public parks similar to New York High Line.  I wrote in my previous post that Promenade Plantée in Paris, France was a model for New York High Line Park.

     London will have its’ own version, “Missing Link”,  in 2017. Two London architecture firms won a competition to design a landscaped walkway  south of the River Thames, that will link new and existing galleries, public works of art and an open-air auditorium.  Last year Joshua David and Robert Hammond, the co-founders of the New York High Line, gave  a talk at the Garden Museum on designing urban green spaces in London.

      New York City already has the High Line, but another project is making headway: The Delancey Underground or “Low Line”. The Low line, which currently exists as a former trolley terminal below Delancey Street will be  transformed into the city's (and world's) first subterranean park.  The former Williamsburg Trolley Terminal was opened in 1903, as a depot for streetcars ferrying passengers between Williamsburg ( Brooklyn)  and the Lower East Side.  It was in service until 1948 when streetcar service was discontinued, and has not been used ever since.

High Line Park, Part 1

     Before 2009 High Line was  is a 1.45-mile-long  abandoned elevated railway.  Today The High Line is a public park owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by  “Friends of the High Line” founded in 1999 by community residents. Tripdavisor  ranked it  #18 of 747 attractions in New York City – higher than New York Public Library and Grand Central Terminal. High Line is the winner of  Travelers' Choice® 2013.   

     Millions of people are visiting it every year, making the High Line the most visited park per acre in the city.  In 2011 3.7 million people visited the High,  only half of them New Yorkers.  In 2012, the High Line welcomed more than 4.4 million visitors.

     In 1847 the new line with railroad tracks for freight trains  was built  on the West Side of Manhattan. The traffic was heavy and  accidents began occurring between trains, pedestrians and  horses.  Men on horses had to ride in front of trains waving flags to free the way . They were called the WestSide Cowboys.  In order to eliminate hazardous conditions   the state of New York and the New York Central Railroad opened The High Line to trains in 1934, removing dangerous trains from the streets.

     The price of the line was  over $150 million in 1930 dollars—more than $2 billion in today's dollars.  The High Line was designed to go through the center of blocks   and   connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside the buildings.  Milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods could come and go without causing any street-level traffic.

     The double-line viaduct was built strong enough to support two fully loaded freight trains.  After the World War II   the Interstate highway network grew, and the rise of the automobile led to drop of a rail traffic. In 1960s the railroad line was operating  in the red. The last freight delivery on the remaining northern part of the line took place in 1980 with three carloads of frozen turkeys.  The most southern part of High Line was dismantled and the High Line stay abandoned for the next twenty years.

     In 1999, the community group Friends of the High Line was formed by Joshua David and Robert Hammond, residents of the neighborhood.   Robert, graduated with Honors in History from Princeton University, lived in the West Village since 1994. Joshua, with BA from    University of Pennsylvania, has lived in Chelsea since 1986 and was a freelance magazine writer.  The Friends  used Promenade Plantée in Paris as a prototype for the proposed elevated park.

     The first elevated park in the world  Promenade Plantée   was constructed in 1994 on  the  19th century railway viaduct, connecting Paris with Strasbourg. Viaduct was built in 1850s and abandoned in 1960s.  

Robert Hammond  said: I lived in the neighborhood so I had always seen it when walking around, but I didn’t think it was all connected. I really didn’t think that much about it until I read an article in The New York Times in the summer of ’99 that said it was threatened with demolition, and it included a map. …

     I assumed someone would be working to preserve it. I called around and thought the American Institute of Architects or the Municipal Arts Society would be working on this. So many things in New York have preservation groups attached to them. But pretty quickly I found no one was doing anything for the High Line and that it was actually going to be demolished. I heard the proposed demolition was on the agenda for a community board meeting in my neighborhood so I went to my first community board meeting ever and sat next to Joshua, who I didn’t know at the time. By the end of the meeting we realized everyone in the room was in favor of demolition except for us. So we exchanged business cards and we said, “Well why don’t we start something together?”

     In 2002 Friends of the High Line gains first City support  and in 2003 a competition  started. 720 teams from 36 countries entered the competition and hundreds of design entries were displayed at Grand Central Terminal.  In 2006 the winning project by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro was on display in the Museum of Modern Arts and in the same year the construction of the first section begun.  In June 2009 the first Section was opened to Public.