The High Line: elevated railroad in Chelsea

[Edward]

Built in the 1930s as an elevated passageway for freight trains, the High Line runs for 1.45 miles, from 34th Street, along the edge of the Hudson River, through West Chelsea's tree-lined blocks and art galleries, into the heart of the Meat Packing District. Friends of the High Line believes this neglected landmark offers New Yorkers the opportunity to create a one-of-a-kind recreational amenity: a grand, public promenade that can be enjoyed by all residents and visitors in New York City. Preservation and reuse will protect the High Line's potential for future transportation use and link the residential, cultural, commercial, and industrial components of these dynamic Manhattan neighborhoods.


The quote above and the map are from the Friends of the Highline website (http://www.thehighline.org)

http://www.wirednewyork.com/images/import/highline_gallery_mapbig.gif



The High Line at 15th Street and 10th Avenue

http://www.wirednewyork.com/guide/highline/images/highline_chelsea_15th.jpg



The High Line and the Jacob Javits convention center

http://www.wirednewyork.com/guide/highline/images/highline_javits.jpg



The High Line at 17th Street

http://www.wirednewyork.com/guide/highline/images/highline_17th_tenth.jpg



The High Line over Tenth Avenue at 16th Street

http://www.wirednewyork.com/guide/highline/images/highline_tenth_16th.jpg

[Edward]

Track Park Plan Derailed
Rudy signed pact to abandon old West Side rail line

By FRANK LOMBARDI
Daily News City Hall Bureau

A few days before Mayor Rudy Giuliani left office, his administration dealt a possible death blow to the High Line — the ghostly elevated freight line on the West Side.

On Dec. 20, the city quietly executed an agreement for voluntary abandonment of the unused old railroad line that runs from 12th to 34th Sts., west of 10th Ave.

In effect, the city consented to the demolition of the 1.4-mile line, which opened in 1933 to serve meat and grocery wholesalers that once dominated the area. It was closed down in 1980, and has been a source of debate ever since.

An alliance of elected officials and preservationists have been fighting to preserve the High Line, aiming to turn it into a showcase-elevated promenade and park. The project would be funded with federal rail-banking funds, they say.

Patterned After Paris

Their inspiration is a similar eyesore rail line in Paris that since 1988 was transformed into the Promenade Plantee and helped spur other development along its route.

Called Friends of the High Line, its champions decried the Giuliani administration's action but refuse to give up.

"We thought it was appalling," said Robert Hammond, co-founder of the group. "What's all the hurry to sign a demolition order?"

Hammond and his allies are pursuing legal and political action to thwart demolition and the surrender of the valuable right of way to adjoining property owners.

On the political front, they hope Mayor Bloomberg and the new speaker of the City Council, Gifford Miller, will follow through on support they voiced last year.

Bloomberg's deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, Daniel Doctoroff, is to meet tomorrow with officials of the city's Economic Development Corp., which signed the demolition agreement.

Aide Seeks Out Both Sides

Doctoroff will then meet separately with Friends of the High Line.

Doctoroff will conduct a thorough analysis and make a recommendation to the mayor, said deputy press secretary Jennifer Falk.

Miller (D-upper East Side) said he still strongly supports the preservation effort.

"I love the High Line," Miller said.

Hammond is also optimistic that a Manhattan judge will rule favorably on a suit brought by Friends of the High Line, contending demolition must go through the city's intricate land-use process.

Property owners who stand to gain from the High Line's demolition are represented by Randy Mastro, who resigned as Giuliani's top deputy mayor in 1998.

He blasted the High Line yesterday as "a public menace and danger to anyone who has to travel underneath it."


Original Publication Date: 1/24/02



The view of the High Line from Chelsea gallery window on 19 January 2002.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/guide/highline/images/high_line_chelsea_19jan02.jpg

[redbrick]

If the High Line is demolished, can housing (and other things) be developed in its place? I mean, what will happen with all the land underneath which will be opened up?

(Edited by redbrick at 6:06 pm on Jan. 27, 2002)

[Edward]

Fight Heats Up Again Over Grassy Bed of Rails

By KELLY CROW (NEW YORK TIMES)

There has long been a hobo serenity to the High Line, an elevated rail bed with grassy patches and rusting tracks that snakes above 10th Avenue between 34th and Gansevoort Streets. Built in the 1930's to carry freight and unused since 1980, the High Line and its peaceful views reveal little of the decade-long fight over its fate.

The latest battle started last month when Justice David B. Saxe of State Supreme Court lifted an order that had prevented the city and a group of Chelsea property owners from tearing down the structure, which they consider an unsafe eyesore. Others want to renovate the strip as a park.

"This is a terrific win for us," said Michael Lefkowitz, a lawyer for Edison Properties, one of 19 businesses that own land beneath the High Line.

Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corporation, said an agreement to share the $11 million cost of dismantling the High Line was being circulated among the property owners and the rail bed's owner, CSX, of Richmond, Va. "It's about eliminating a public safety hazard," Ms. Patterson said, "but it's also about enabling the city to move forward and better develop the area."

Half the property owners have signed the agreement, she said. The city and CSX have not done so. A CSX spokesman, Robert Sullivan, said the company would not sign until everyone else had. If all parties sign, a 120-day waiting period is then required.

Robert Hammond, co-founder of a group called Friends of the High Line, hopes supporters have enough time to save it. A ruling is expected next month in a lawsuit the group has filed against the city, claiming the demolition plans violate the city's land-use review process. And on Feb. 6, the group is to release a study by the Design Trust for Public Space that gives ideas for raising $40 million and renovating the High Line as a park promenade. Advance galleys of the study were made available last week.

In a foreword to the study, written before he became mayor, Mr. Bloomberg said: "Today, on the West Side of Manhattan, we have an opportunity to create a great new public promenade on top of an out-of-use elevated rail viaduct called the High Line. This would provide much-needed green space for residents and visitors, and it would attract new businesses and residents, strengthing our economy. We know it can work . . . . I look forward to working with Friends of the High Line and other interested parties to develop a feasible reuse scenario."

Former Mayor Giuliani favored demolition.

Last Friday, a mayoral spokeswoman said Mr. Bloomberg was still familiarizing himself with the issues. Daniel L. Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development, met Friday with Friends of the High Line.

"It's disappointing to see all this last- minute political maneuvering," Mr. Hammond said. "But we've still got a good case, and we're cautiously optimistic."

[Edward]

January 23, 2002 – March 5, 2002
Municipal Art Society
457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street


Reclaiming the High Line
On view through March 5 at the Urban Center Galleries

The High Line, an abandoned, historic elevated steel railway structure running along Manhattan's West Side from 34th Street to Gansevoort Street, was chosen for the endangered properties list because of its potentially imminent demolition by the city, despite the efforts of Friends of the High Line, a group working to convert the elevated railway into a landscaped public trail.

"Reclaiming The High Line," an exhibition co-sponsored by The Design Trust for Public Space and Friends of the High Line is the outcome of a 12-month study of the High Line that explores possible re-use scenarios for the structure.

The timing of the exhibition is critical and the stakes are high: the fate of the High Line - facing a pending demolition order - hangs in the balance as a new city administration settles in, and key appointments to executive offices are being made. However, a future for this evocative urban relic is not lost. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is an advocate for the High Line's reuse, and has contributed an introduction to a new publication, Reclaiming the High Line, upon which the exhibition is based.

[Edward]

Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-high1221,0,1823477.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines

Mayor To Save Westside Rail Line
By Curtis L. Taylor
December 20, 2002, 10:02 PM EST

In a major shift from the previous administration, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken legal action to save the 1.45-mile abandoned High Line rail on Manhattan’s West Side, preserving the right to possibly build a unique, elevated public park, officials said.

The city filed a certificate of interim trail use this week with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board, an important early step in preserving the rail line for future development that could include residential housing and a large, yet-to-be-determined public space, according to Daniel Doctoroff, deputy major for economic development and rebuilding.

“Our intent is to create an amenity onto the High Line and build around it residential developments while at the same time preserving the essential character of the neighborhood,” he said.

Doctoroff characterized the court action as an important early step in a complicated process.

“This is not a done deal,” Doctoroff said. “We still have to reach an agreement with the High Line.”

The city’s emerging plan appears to allow the option to tear down the northern section of the rail line between 30th and 34th streets, in case a stadium needs to be built on the site for the 2012 Olympics.

Still, the city’s aggressive position to save the abandoned rail line running from 34th Street to West 14th Street, knifing through Ninth and Tenth avenues, is a decided shift from the Giuliani administration, which had taken legal steps to demolish the site, officials said.

Speaker Gifford Miller (D-Upper East Side), who has openly championed the project, lauded the Bloomberg administration’s actions.

Miller said the idea was to create “an exciting public space and elevated park” for all New Yorkers to enjoy, mirroring the world-renowned in Paris. The estimated $60 million price tag would be funded through a combination of federal, city and state dollars, he said.

Miller said there was national precedent for reclaiming unused rail lines, citing the federally funded “Rails to Trails” program. Miller said maintaining the integrity of the “right of way space” was important because the large tract of land could prove important in seeking transportation alternatives.

Offices for the rail company, CSX, which owns the rail line were closed Friday evening and an official couldn’t be reached for comment.

The community-based Friends for the High Line, along with Miller, have led the fight to preserve the land to build the elevated park. Miller described the abandoned rail line as offering “some of the most unique views in all of Manhattan.”

[Edward]

NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/22/nyregion/22RAIL.html

On West Side, Rail Plan Is Up and Walking
By DAVID W. DUNLAP

A once-quixotic proposal to turn an abandoned rail line on the far West Side of Manhattan into an elevated public promenade has been formally embraced by the Bloomberg administration, almost exactly a year after the Giuliani administration moved to demolish the hulking structure.

Now, rather than seeking to tear down the 1.45-mile railroad viaduct, known as the High Line, New York City has asked the federal Surface Transportation Board to grant a certificate of interim trail use, which would preserve the route as a distinctly urban stretch in the national rails-to-trails network.

"We think the High Line, ultimately converted into a park, will enhance the character of the entire far West Side," Daniel L. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, said in an interview on Friday.

"The High Line will remain up," he said, "and in conjunction with this we would seek to rezone portions of the areas surrounding the High Line in order to accommodate residential development. We think the High Line can be an important amenity."

The City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, said, "It's a huge step in the right direction."

That is not easy to envision while standing in the dark shadow of the viaduct, which has all the charm of an el. But it becomes clearer on the deck, where trees, weeds and wildflowers among rusting tracks and switches create a verdant swath through Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea and the Gansevoort Meat Market.

As a practical matter, the CSX Corporation, which manages the High Line, is still under an order from the Surface Transportation Board to pursue demolition, an outcome sought by Chelsea Property Owners, which objects to the structure as a dismal, dangerous blight that cannot be rehabilitated feasibly, attractively or economically — especially at a time of budget deficits.

Douglas Sarini, president of the group, which represents commercial owners along the High Line route, did not reply to requests for comment.

Earlier this year, however, the group said in one of its fliers: "Money doesn't grow on trees. And the last time we checked, it wasn't growing in the weeds of the High Line, either."

In fact, there is no money now to create a public space, nor even a plan to follow, although a private group called Friends of the High Line intends to sponsor a competition for ideas early next year.

What last week's filing does do is ally the city firmly with efforts to rehabilitate the 69-year old High Line, which runs about 30 feet above sidewalk level from Gansevoort to 34th Streets on a path that primarily parallels Tenth Avenue. The line, which in some places runs through or has spurs into buildings, linked the warehousing and industrial district along the Hudson River to the rest of the nation until 1980, and has been deteriorating since then.

"I understand that for property owners and many in the community that if you have to choose between the High Line as it currently is and no High Line, bringing it down makes sense," Mr. Miller, the Council speaker, said. "But I believe — and I think the administration has also seen — that when you consider the possibilities for a preserved and reused High Line as a public space and a signature moment in the New York landscape, that the positives are almost limitless."

Robert Hammond, co-founder of the Friends of the High Line, said the city's action was "at the top of my Christmas list." Two years ago, his well-connected but fledgling group faced considerable skepticism when it suggested that the High Line might one day rank with the Promenade Plantée in Paris, an old railroad viaduct that has been turned into a landscaped walkway.

A year ago, the group was in court, along with the City Council and C. Virginia Fields, the Manhattan borough president, challenging the tentative demolition agreement reached on Dec. 20, 2001, in the last days of the Giuliani administration. The High Line's backers argued that because the agreement involved property easements along the route of the viaduct, it should have been subject to the city's uniform land-use review procedure, known as Ulurp.

In March, they won a ruling from Justice Diane S. Lebedeff of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, who wrote that the administration's "determination to forego Ulurp review was undertaken without `lawful procedure' and was an `error of law.' " The ruling is being appealed. What is also holding up demolition is that a final, signed agreement has yet to be reached. And in its filing with the Surface Transportation Board, the city expressed "serious doubt" that such an agreement could ever be attained.

Instead, Mr. Doctoroff said, the city now hopes to reach a new agreement with CSX in the next few months, permitting "interim trail use," although he cautioned that this is a legal term; it does not mean that the viaduct would be open to strollers, skaters and bicyclists any time soon.

"A significant investment will have to be made," Mr. Doctoroff said.

In its filing, the city said that to establish an interim trail use, it would be willing to assume full responsibility for management of the right-of-way and any legal liability.

Without taking a position, Laurie Izes, a consultant to CSX, who is overseeing the High Line, said the company was "interested in a responsible and expeditious solution" and would review the filing if the board granted the city's request for interim trail use.

[amigo32]

Old railway lines are a historical part of an individual community. *Hopefully, somebody will throw some bucks behind a renovation and restoration plan, to turn this line into a trail or park. *Here in MO., the state did it by creating the Katy Trail, (probably because Jesse James loved robbing trains along it), which extends pretty much the width of the state. *It is a wonderful biking, walking getaway.

(Edited by amigo32 at 1:41 am on Dec. 23, 2002)

[Merry]

I've just bought a *book called "Walking the High Line" by Joel Sternfeld containing some very nice photos, which I think serve as an excellent advertisement for saving and restoring the High Line as an elevated park or promenade. *I hope it happens.

[dbhstockton]

Does anybody here know how to get up there?

[Edward]

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2002/12/22/nyregion/021222_met_RAILmap.gif

[Kill Eye]

Boston.com has been doing a series of stories about the future of the land below the current elevated artery when the Big Dig is done. As part of the series they profiled some redevelopment success stories in other cities, among the the Viaduc des Arts in Paris. This is also a great model for the kind of development that could take place on the High Line. You can view Boston.com's story here:

http://www.boston.com/beyond_bigdig/cases/paris/index.shtml



(Edited by Kill Eye at 5:03 pm on Dec. 30, 2002)

[Kris]

Designing the High Line: Competition Insights

Three jurors, the competition coordinator, and Friends of the High Line co-founders offer their thoughts about - and hopes for - one of Manhattan's most unique urban environments.

by Claire Weisz, AIA
April 21, 2003

Editor’s note: The High Line is a 1 ½-mile-long elevated freight railway line that runs from West 34 Street south to the Meatpacking District on Manhattan’s far West Side. Built in the 1930’s, it has been unused since 1980 – and under constant threat of demolition. Friends of the High Line (FHL), a non-profit coalition of local residents, businesses, and civic groups established in 1999, is dedicated to not only preserving the structure, but also to transforming it into a grand public promenade.

To that end, FHL recently launched “Designing the High Line,” an open, one-stage ideas competition for the structure’s reuse. April 25 is the early-bird registration deadline (with a $50 entry fee – after that, entries will cost $100 each). The final deadline for registration and submissions is May 23. (Click on link above for details and registration.)

A large selection of entries, including the winners, will be exhibited in Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal July 10-26, 2003.

The jury includes: *Julie Bargmann, D.I.R.T. Studio, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia; *Vishaan Chakrabarti, Director of Manhattan Office, New York City Department of City Planning; John Lee Compton, Co-Chair, Chelsea Preservation and Planning Committee, Manhattan Community Board No. 4; Lynne Cook, Curator, Dia Art Foundation; *Steven Holl, AIA, Architect; Murray Moss, Owner, Moss; Marilyn Jordan Taylor, FAIA, Chairman, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Signe Nielsen, FASLA, Landscape Architect and Urban Designer; Bernard Tschumi, AIA, Architect, Dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation; and *Robert Hammond, Co-Founder, Friends of the High Line. *Reed Kroloff, former Editor-in-Chief of Architecture magazine, is the competition advisor. (* = Interviewed)

The interviews that follow were conducted by Claire Weisz, AIA, Principal of Weisz + Yoes, and Co-Executive Director of the Design Trust for Public Space.

Reed Kroloff, Designing the High Line Competition Advisor

Claire Weisz: What do you think is important about the High Line?

Reed Kroloff: What I think is important about the High line is its height. You have this remnant at an unnatural height, a fantastic otherworldly space. You can wander through New York at a magical mid-level. It is really an unparalleled opportunity. The question is what can you do with this to let people take advantage of it?

CW: What kind of urbanism is the High Line?

RK: The High Line is distinct because it cuts right through the grid. Only the subways here do that. It allows you to really experience the grid unlike anywhere else. Your urban perception is shifted – a split-space urbanism – with the ability to move through buildings, too.

CW: Why a design competition?

RK: Right now, it’s not accessible and not clean. There is the opportunity to create architecture in the city in a way it can’t be created anywhere else. A competition should show us many ideas about what is possible before plans are set.

CW: Is it Architecture or Landscape?

RK: It is Architecture because it is a bridge structure, but it has become Landscape through neglect. Now, there is a sense of not just preserving but enhancing the condition of this structure and the place it has become – without turning it into a “Disney experience.” It has to be celebrated for what makes it distinct. It reminds me of the drawings David McCauley does of cities transforming into other things. This competition about a neglected structure is a wonderful vindication of the preservation program in New York. It is remarkable that when it was threatened, a group of citizens rose up and said “No!” People want to keep a piece of the city – what it was in early incarnations. And now we have the competition to show us how to use it in the 21st century.

Steven Holl, Architect – Juror

Claire Weisz: What do you think about when you look at the High Line now?

Steven Holl: I believe that its real potential lies in what I’d call a public-private hybrid: eventually realizing a variety of enterprises and functions that install themselves along its length. An example is how the High Line works in the project that Jean Nouvel proposed in the Meatpacking District last year. It demonstrates the possibilities that can exist at the upper level when an architect is interested in doing interesting things. This would give the High Line energy beyond that of being purely a public project. If you could engage adjacent interests in being responsible for pieces of it, for maintaining it, for having events and activities up there, then this kind of thinking will really make the High Line vital. I see this upper passage getting its richness from a crazy quilt of different uses and places.

For example, imagine just walking along, and parts of it are wild. At another section, they are using it as part of a building. They’ve repaved and formed it into a place where you can have a fashion show one day or stop to have lunch – and it glows with lighting from underneath. And then walk another block, and it goes back to being wild. There must be some ways that you can – say for 10 hours a month – use it for special events. Look at Bryant Park – why does it work there? Bryant Park is a great example of a park and that’s fine – but it’s a great place because it has the other things going on.

What we can’t neglect is the underside of it. It can really be quite nice. Like what was done at the car wash on 14th Street. You can use lighting and glass, and it can be really something useful. But as I see it, it needs to have both the public and private sectors working on it together.

Vishaan Chakrabarti, Department of City Planning, NYC - Juror

Claire Weisz: What are some of the issues that City Planning would like to see the competition address?

Vishaan Chakrabarti: I think that the most radical concept is that this could be a successful public space that’s elevated in section. There are so few examples that work. How do you get people wanting to go up there? What is the programming? Wonderful possibilities exist that relate to what is below the High Line and what is happening on the side streets. We hope that the entries will deal with these issues.

CW: What do people need to know about the neighborhoods that the High Line bisects?

VC: In addition to lower Manhattan, one of the largest planning projects the city will ever undertake is the Hudson Yards, which stretches over the area just north of the High Line. One of our objectives is the creation of a vast open space network, in which the High Line plays a big role. You could walk from the Meatpacking District to Clinton on one continuous public open space. The High Line can serve as a great connector into the core of Hudson Yards – the knuckle of the plan – where all the districts come together in a public square. It is really like the Bryant Park of the far West Side. The High Line charges right into that. If you continue on the High Line to the west, you will be out on the water. To the east, the network connects the High Line to Penn Station.

CW: Are you saying that you are formally planning for that core New York activity: walking?

VC: Yes. And the High Line is an incredible walkable connector. But there are other planning issues involved. We certainly envision the ongoing uses of the arts district in the mid-blocks of far West Chelsea, and along the avenues we see a potential for residential uses. The High Line is surrounded by buildings that make sense in terms of their use and form – we are very excited about the possibilities.

What I’m really hoping is that the competition will focus on the High Line itself: its structure, its conditions, and getting up to it. It is trite to say, “This is a linear park.” What does that mean? You can imagine the surface being a hundred different things, and the program as well, from jogging to retail. You look at it and wonder: should it speak to a more rugged experience of wildflowers or a more refined, elegant, planted park? We are only at the tip of the iceberg of understanding what “linear park” might mean here: a public space of this length in this place.

Julie Bargmann, Landscape Architect - Juror

Claire Weisz: What is the main landscape challenge that the High Line presents?

Julie Bargmann: The challenge is to defend the value of this amazing landscape infrastructure in every sense, including ecologically. I was among all the folks who barely knew what the High Line was. Then I saw it when I went to an initial site visit at Penn Yards, and it was it epiphany. It has to be saved. As a landscape architect, never in a million years could I design anything as thrilling or beautiful. Then I met Robert Hammond and was introduced to all the political problems facing its survival. That fueled the fire for me to go to the mat for it. So basically, the hope I have for the role of the High Line in relation to the Penn Yards site and beyond is to have a connector both physically and historically, and to hold a piece of the public realm within something that the community perceived as a private development, and build it as a public amenity.

CW: What issues are you hoping the competition will address?

JB: As the guidelines express, what are the connections to and away from the High Line? How can it weave together other landscape initiatives in the city such as Hudson River Park and important streets and avenues? And, of course, I’m very interested in the exploration of urban ecology and how this 1.5-mile ecological corridor gives us something to experiment with. It should be something that looks at the particular and peculiar, as opposed to "shrubbing it up.” Here, even the native plant discussion has an urban twist. There is no real definition of the NYC "native landscape.” I'll look at a plant palette that may show pre-settlement plant communities, but what does that have to do with the New York plant community? The other thing is recognizing the High Line as 1.5 miles of open space with no intersection with motorized traffic: people should see this in the same light as Central Park, which is also a piece of landscape infrastructure. I would hope that not only will there be cultural idiosyncrasies but ecological and environmental idiosyncrasies as well.

CW: What about change?

JB: Landscape on this platform in an urban setting is a special and exaggerated microclimate. How do you deal with an extreme landscape that goes through so many different circumstances? You are talking about daily changes, not only seasonal changes.

We are more conscious of changes over time – the decade clock, the geological clock. Especially when you look at it in terms of the average life of a tree, which in New York is seven years, while elsewhere trees survive 50 or 100 years. There is a lot more consciousness of how succession works: how weedy this landscape is in its in early succession, how that landscape will evolve, and perhaps even need to be reset or disturbed. If you imagine and build the right landscape infrastructure, the city will grow the right way around it.

I think a lot about the urban wilds, though maybe the general public is not ready for this. Abandoned and vacant lots really do have a peculiar life and quality of their own. When Penn Yards came up, I thought, how can retain some of this wildness? That’s where the fight is very hard, but I think that's catching on. Ecologists are beginning to appreciate urban ecology in terms of its value as a landscape experience. Central Park isn’t the only paradigm, but it is important to think that this generation can understand landscape infrastructure on this scale with different concerns. There are urban and wild qualities to the High Line. How do you capture that and not over-tame or cultivate it?

Joshua David and Robert Hammond (Juror)
Co-Founders, Friends of the High Line

Claire Weisz: Why did FHL need to do this competition?

Joshua David: The High Line is a completely unique entity that has no direct precedents – except perhaps the Promenade Plantée [a reclaimed elevated rail viaduct in Paris] – and we wanted to make sure that every possible design idea was put on the table before we moved to the next step.

Robert Hammond: There is not just one discipline that covers all the aspects of the project. It includes landscape, gardens, lighting, architecture – everything. We wanted to create a way for talented people to team up – a lighting designer and an architect, a horticulturist and a landscape architect, an artist and city planner, or any other combination of disciplines. And a good design will help get the High Line built. It will help FHL overcome the legal, political, and financial hurdles that lay before us.

CW: What is the role of the architecture and design community?

RH: When we started this project, most people thought we were crazy and that it would never move forward. Architects and designers recognized the vision early on and gave us the critical backing we needed to gain broader support. I think they will play an even more important role now. By developing visionary ideas, they will help us build political and financial support for the project. FHL has spent a huge amount of time and energy on this project. It is not enough to build just an average park. We want the space to be as amazing as the structure itself.

CW: What would you, personally, like to see up there?

RH: My love of the High Line comes from its contractions – the juxtaposition of seemingly incongruous elements – a pastoral meadow atop an industrial infrastructure. I hope to see designs that reflect these kinds of contradictions. I love the metaphor of a bubbling brook that runs through the heart of the Meatpacking and West Chelsea art districts. I am interested in preserving an essence of what happens when people leave and the wildness takes over – and at the same time gives people access to this wild environment.

CW: What is the toughest challenge?

JD: A really important challenge is dealing with access. The High Line’s value can only be realized when the public can get up on it. Access is what will connect the two worlds created by the structure: the great spaces on top and below. How do you create access systems that are ADA-compliant and can land on a narrow sidewalk? How do you build public access through buildings next to the High Line? This is a good time to point out that currently, unfortunately, there is no public access to the Line’s upper deck. It is owned by the CSX Corporation, and it’s private property. Some people have been sneaking up lately. This is a bad idea. FHL discourages it in the strongest terms. It is illegal – you will be arrested. And it hurts our efforts to negotiate with the railroad to open it to the public.

RH: Some people view the spaces below the line, as it crosses over the street, as a negative condition, but a good design could completely change this perception.

CW: How should entrants treat adjacent buildings?

RH: The competition is focused on the High Line more than adjacent buildings. We hope entrants will submit proposals that concentrate on the elevated structure itself – the way access might be developed and programming for the Line, rather than focusing on the design of buildings around the Line – though we are interested in seeing how access might be built into adjacent buildings. But for the most part, it’s not about a lot of new buildings. It’s really about creating a new public space that works. The community regularly voices its concerns about significantly increasing density in the area, or creating building forms that are excessively tall or bulky. None of our studies show that increased density in the area was required to make reusing the High Line viable. People in the area want to preserve the essential neighborhood character, and the High Line is an important piece of the character.

CW: What about transportation uses?

JD: We see pedestrian transportation use as the most feasible and the most desirable. It is essential that we never forget that the High Line, at base, is a piece of transportation infrastructure. The great thing about rail-banking is that it allows us to use the structure for pedestrian transportation now, while at the same time allowing for other forms of transportation in the future if that ever becomes desirable or necessary.

CW: What kind of resources do you have available for competitors?

RH: Everything is on the website http://www.thehighline.org/competition: the guidelines, research and resources, images, a list of existing flora, registration, AutoCad drawings, and other relevant materials. Remember to register by April 25 to avoid a late fee.

CW: What are you planning for the Exhibition?

RH: We are planning to exhibit as many entries as possible in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall, July 10-26. Grand Central has great historic and symbolic connections to the High Line, and half a million pass through it everyday. There will be a panel discussion with the jury once the exhibit is mounted. There will be lots of press attention, since this will be the first time we are showing design concepts for reuse.

CW: What are the requirements?

JD: The requirements are really simple. Submit two boards – no models, no videotapes – that address the competition objectives: Define a comprehensive vision for the High Line as a whole; identify innovative ways to deal with access; present ideas for the spaces below the Line; and create a compelling public environment on the structure’s elevated rail bed.

Claire Weisz, AIA, is a New York based architect and principal in the firm of Weisz + Yoes. She is also the Executive Director of The Design Trust for Public Space. Originally from Canada, she has practiced in California and taught urban design and architecture at Columbia University and The Pratt Institute.


© 2003 ArchNewsNow.com

[AJphx]

cool, this is good urban planning. Hopefully all the buildings it goes through will have entrances on to it.

[Kris]

A virtual tour: http://www.oldnyc.com/highline/contents/highline.html

[Fabb]

June 1, 2003

Many Proposals for Rusty Rail Line on the West Side
By DAVID W. DUNLAP

After the last boxcar rumbled along the High Line in 1980, imagination began riding the rails.

Battling landowners' opposition, official intransigence and — frankly — common sense, quixotic New Yorkers periodically dreamed of ways to save the High Line, an elevated railroad viaduct that threads its way through the far West Side of Manhattan, from Gansevoort to 34th Streets.

That dreaming has now gone global.

Entrants from Berlin, Vienna and Tokyo were among the four winners chosen on Friday by an influential jury in a competition that sought ideas for redesigning the High Line. There were 720 proposals from 38 countries, said Robert Hammond, director of Friends of the High Line, which sponsored the competition.

They ranged from pure whimsy — several contemplated turning the High Line into a cow pasture and one of the winners imagined it as a 7,920-foot-long swimming pool — to visions as starkly provocative as the structure itself, which can be seen as a romantic industrial relic or as a dangerous blight.

None of the ideas stand a chance of getting built as conceived. But the competition marks another step forward in the campaign to reuse the High Line.

"What it proves to me is that no matter what the design of the High Line ultimately is, something great will occur," said Vishaan Chakrabarti, director of the Manhattan office of the Department of City Planning, after he and the other jurors finished their daylong review.

"It's obvious from this competition that the conceptual is going to get us to the real," he said.

Mr. Chakrabarti's presence was significant. It reflects a turnaround at City Hall from the position of the Giuliani administration, which favored demolition of the High Line, to the Bloomberg administration, which embraces its preservation.

The swimming pool proposal, by Nathalie Rinne of Vienna, was one of the winners chosen by a jury that included the architects Steven Holl, Marilyn Jordan Taylor and Bernard Tschumi and the landscape architects Julie Bargmann and Signe Nielsen.

They also picked "Black Market Crawler," a moving structure with shops, galleries, theaters and places for a full range of activities — not all of them legal. It was submitted by Hugo Beschoor Plug of Berlin.

Ernesto Mark Faunlagui of Hoboken won for his proposal to alter the viaduct through incisions and displacement, creating new openings, parapets, walls and skylight wells. And Matthew Greer of New York won for his plan to let the structure continue to evolve naturally into a kind of wild meadow.

A separate award for public access was won by Takuji Nakamura of Tokyo, who proposed illuminated shafts penetrating the viaduct, with stairs and elevators.

Other entries recreated the High Line as a farm, a fluorescent fun house, a log-flume ride, a trellis-wrapped garden, a roller coaster, a small-scale Appalachian Trail and the zones of Dante's paradise, purgatory and inferno. Mr. Greer even proposed to bring back a boxcar.

Copyright 2003*The New York Times Company

[Kris]

NEXT STOP ON THE HIGH LINE: AN EXHIBITION AT GRAND CENTRAL
On View July 10-26, Exhibition Airs a Multitude of Ideas for
Converting a West Side Elevated Railroad into Public Open Space

NEW YORK, NY – From July 10 through 26, visitors to Grand Central Terminal will have a chance to join in brainstorming about the future of 1.5 miles of Manhattan's West Side. The occasion is the exhibition Designing the High Line, organized by the non-profit group Friends of the High Line. On view in Grand Central's Vanderbilt Hall, the exhibition presents a wide variety of ideas—from the highly practical to the purely visionary—for preserving the High Line, an inactive West Side elevated railroad, and re-using it as open space for the public.

Overgrown with trees and wildflowers, the historic High Line stretches from 34th Street down through Chelsea to the Meat Packing District. A proposal to make this unused asset into an active part of present-day New York has won widespread approval, and the City of New York has taken the first official steps toward rail-banking the structure. Rail-banking would allow the High Line to become an elevated walkway, running for a mile and a half above the streets of Manhattan.

http://wwww.thehighline.org/newsletters/061103_pr.html

[STT757]

They should utilize the ROW for a Light Rail line that would run from the Upper West Side onto the High Line and Down to Lower Manhattan, the Light Rail could come down off the elevated and run at street level along the West Side drive/West Street to the World Financial Center.

[Edward]

High Line near the Railroad Yards and construction of Times Square Tower (http://www.wirednewyork.com/skyscrapers/10xsq/default.htm). 4 July 2003.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/guide/highline/images/highline_hudson_times_square_4july03.jpg



High Line and The Empire State Building (http://www.wirednewyork.com/landmarks/esb/default.htm).

http://www.wirednewyork.com/guide/highline/images/highline_esb_west_4july03.jpg



A stretch of High Line near the Gansevoort Market Meat Center and construction of Hotel Gansevoort. 4 July 2003.

http://www.wirednewyork.com/hotels/hotel_gansevoort/gansevoort_hotel_meat_market_4july03.jpg

[Kris]

NY Times.

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/07/08/arts/arts650.jpg

URBAN PLANNING: THE HIGH LINE Here's the question: What is to be done with the High Line, 1.5 miles of inactive elevated railroad, overgrown with trees and wildflowers, which courses along Manhattan's West Side from 34th Street through Chelsea to the meat packing district? New York City has already taken the first step toward preserving the High Line as a walkway, but in what form? From Thursday through July 26, the exhibition "Designing the High Line" at Grand Central Terminal will see the culmination of an international ideas competition organized by the nonprofit organization Friends of the High Line, which drew 720 entries from 38 countries. The top submissions will be highlighted, and visitors will have a chance to submit their own suggestions.

[Taksim]

I vote for an elevated park.

[TLOZ Link5]

Most of us here do, Taksim :)

It'll definitely be a catalyst for development on the West Side.

[Zoe]

I just came back from the Grand Central exhibition. *It is a worth while trip. *Alot of great ideas, my favorite was #209 Olympic Village. *The proposal calls for mulitiple new buildings to be built with the High Line running thru the centers. *Some of them are really off the wall. *Enjoy

[thomasjfletcher]

I was up the High Line the other day- truly beautiful this time of year- took some pix- http://www.geocities.com/tjaaf69/highline.htm
which show access points.
cheers
tom

[Eugenius]

Fascinating pictures. *I particularly liked the one with the Coke bottle. *That, I believe, is the retired sign from Times Square. *A sad end, really. *I would have thought it would wind up in a museum somewhere.

[Freedom Tower]

Judging by Fletchers pictures, they have already turned it into an elevated park ;)

[Edward]

Fletch, what I want to know is how did you get on the High Line, and why you were not arrested? ;) Seriously, I always wanted to walk the High Line, anyone lives in an apartment with windows opening onto the tracks?

[TLOZ Link5]

Thanks for those pictures, Fletcher. *I'm really excited about the restoration now; the placement of that el is definitely unique!

[billyblancoNYC]

What an asset this will be to the city if it's done right. *Plus, all the development this will most likely spark will be amazing. *I wonder if it could be linked in some way to Hudson River Park?

[Kris]

July 25, 2003

Move to Reclaim Rail Line Receives Bipartisan Push

By MIKE McINTIRE

City officials put aside partisan differences yesterday to forcefully push an ambitious proposal that would transform an elevated rail line spanning 20 blocks on Manhattan's West Side from an antiquated eyesore into a lush park.

The passionate appeals by City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and representatives of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, normally political adversaries, were viewed by park advocates as a major step forward for a plan that, in less than two years, has gone from half-baked to cooked enough to require the involvement of lawyers.

"We believe we can turn this space into one of New York's great places," said Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff. "This is the spine, truly the vital link, that connects three rapidly evolving and exciting neighborhoods."

Mr. Miller called the proposed 1.6-mile elevated greenway a "signature development" for New York unlike any other rail-bed reclamation project in the country.

"It is such a creative, thoughtful and exciting possibility that it's just unthinkable that we could not seize this," he said.

Though dramatic, the remarks were delivered at a hearing before an obscure federal transportation panel whose mission is far more mundane: namely, to untangle a raft of legal issues that have kept the fate of the 69-year-old railroad viaduct, known as the High Line, in limbo for more than a decade.

The panel, the Surface Transportation Board, is not expected to issue any rulings for at least a month. The project, which by some estimates could cost $65 million, would still face years of design planning, regulatory approvals and development.

A rusting incongruity, the High Line is a hulking relic when viewed from below, its promise revealed only when one ascends its verdant deck of tall native grasses and wildflowers that have taken hold since the trains stopped running in the early 1980's. It emerges from a rail yard at 34th Street and runs about 30 feet above sidewalk level south to Greenwich Village, where it ends at Gansevoort Street.

In 1992, a coalition of property owners along the corridor, arguing that the old railway was a hazardous eyesore and an impediment to redevelopment, won federal backing for a plan to tear it down, a proposal later supported by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. However, the plan never materialized because the coalition and the railroad's owner at the time, Conrail, could not agree on an ultimate price tag for demolition.

Conrail's successor, the CSX Corporation, has not taken a stand publicly on the question of whether to preserve the High Line, but has suggested it would not object as long as the company's financial interests were protected.

As attempts to raze the rail line stalled, the once-far-fetched notion of revitalizing it steadily gathered steam, and Mr. Bloomberg, in a turn-about from his predecessor, embraced the concept. The Bloomberg administration envisions a transformed High Line as an engine for economic growth in the communities through which is passes.

All sides in the issue — the preservationists, the neighbors who have favored demolition and the High Line's owner — are now seeking guidance from the transportation board. Whatever decision the board makes may not be final, because the city has said it would move to block any attempt to demolish the High Line, setting the stage for a protracted battle in state court.

The city's change of heart regarding the future of the High Line was cause for bewilderment by the transportation board chairman, Roger Nober, who pressed officials on what had changed since 1992.

"Back then, elected officials were saying the High Line had to come down," Mr. Nober said during the hearing at 26 Federal Plaza. "Why is it now in the public interest to maintain it?"


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[TLOZ Link5]

Is it Mr. Nober's implication that public opinion is always constant?

[Kris]

http://www.architectureweek.com/2003/0730/news_2-1.html

[Zoe]

I just recieved this from the Friends of the High Line news letter.


TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28: COMMUNITY INPUT MEETING FOR HIGH LINE DESIGN
As part of a multi-stage planning process leading to a design master plan for the High Line, Friends of the High Line (FHL) will hold an open community input session on October 28. There, FHL will solicit public comment on the design proposals created for Designing the High Line, the ideas competition FHL held earlier this year. We invite local residents and business-owners and all interested New Yorkers to come tell FHL which designs you liked (and which ones you didn’t like) and let us know what good ideas might have been missed by all 720 competition entrants. Public comment gathered at this event will be distilled into a list of community-mandated design guidelines that will be included in the Request for Proposals to be distributed to prospective design teams. This event offers High Line community members and the general public a valuable opportunity to register comments and ideas at the very start of the design process. We hope to see you there.

Tuesday, October 28 @ TIME TBA (Evening)
Metropolitan Pavilion
110 West 19th Street (6th/7th Avenues)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11: OPEN HOUSE NEW YORK & HIGH LINE VIEWING
On Saturday, October 11, Friends of the High Line will participate in the inaugural openhousenewyork (OHNY), one of the largest celebrations of architecture and design in New York City history. OHNY will invite the public inside 75 fascinating sites, many of which are usually closed to the public, in all five boroughs—at no charge. Since we cannot offer tours of the High Line to the general public, FHL will participate by offering a unique rooftop view of the High Line. To request information on the OHNY inaugural weekend event, contact info@ohny.org.

[Kris]

City Unveils Plans to Turn Old Rail Line Into a Park

By WINNIE HU

The Bloomberg administration moved ahead yesterday with its plans to transform an abandoned elevated rail line into a 1.6-mile-long park and make it the centerpiece for new commercial and residential developments along the western edge of Chelsea.

At a news briefing, city planning officials unveiled a detailed proposal to carve out a special redevelopment district along 10th and 11th Avenues, between West 16th and West 30th Streets. The plan is part of the city's overall effort to encourage and control development on the West Side, Manhattan's most undeveloped area.

Zoning there would be changed from manufacturing and commercial uses to allow up to 4,200 units of new housing, primarily along the avenues.

Running through it would be the High Line, a railroad viaduct from the 1930's that extends from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street. Development along the line would be restricted to protect the open views. The plan also restricts development of midblock areas throughout the district to preserve the low-lying warehouses that are home to more than 200 art galleries.

In a concession to those who own land directly under the High Line, the proposal would allow those property owners to sell their air rights — as much as one million square feet — to high-rise developments on the avenues.

Amanda M. Burden, the city's planning director, said the High Line would open up parkland in a part of the city that does not have enough while adding character to a once thriving manufacturing area.

Members of Manhattan Community Board 4 said, however, that they were concerned about the proposed height of some of the buildings and wanted more assurances that there would be enough housing at prices for lower- and middle-income people. City officials estimate that developers could set aside as much as a quarter of the new units at below market rates.

"There really are some very good things there, but there are still some glitches," said Lee Compton, co-chairman of the board's Chelsea preservation and planning committee.

City officials will seek comments on their proposal at a public hearing on Oct. 2, and could adopt the special district as early as next fall. The final proposal would have to be approved by the City Council.

The neighborhood has been much coveted by developers in recent years, prompting the city to insist on an overall plan for the area. Much of the discussion has centered on the future of the High Line.

The last boxcar rumbled over the line more than two decades ago, and many New Yorkers have pushed to save the rusty relic. The rail line has even inspired its own group of patrons, the Friends of the High Line, which has enlisted the help of celebrities like Edward Norton to drum up support for preservation efforts.

Council Speaker Gifford Miller, who keeps a giant color photograph of the railway in his home, has committed to spending more than $15 million over the next four years to transform the High Line into a public space. City officials estimate the project's cost at more than $65 million.

"I'm probably the High Line's biggest supporter," Mr. Miller said. "I've had the opportunity to walk on it, and it's a transforming experience. You see the city in a different way than before."


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[billyblancoNYC]

Sorry about that...

http://www.globest.com/newyork.html

City Expects 1M SF of Developable Space in West Chelsea

By Barbara Jarvie
Last updated: Sep 24, 2003 05:30PM

NEW YORK CITY-A proposal for the area surrounding the High Line, an elevated steel railroad structure built in the 1930s, but not in use since 1980, would provide for more than one million sf of new residential and commercial development. The proposed Special West Chelsea District encompasses the areas of West 17th and 30th streets between Tenth and Eleventh avenues.

The current zoning of the area allows for light manufacturing and commercial uses. Under the proposal that would be changed to allow a greater density of residential and commercial uses along the avenues and in the mid blocks. Currently, these sites are dominated by parking garages and auto-related stores. The mid-block area is also known as a hotbed for art galleries--as many as 200 have opened their doors in recent years. Further development of galleries will be encouraged and museums will be permitted. The city planning department also anticipates upwards of 4,200 units of affordable and market-rate housing to be added to the district.

"This is a comprehensive, yet site specific plan," said Amanda Burden, director of the New York City Department of City Planning.

"We want to create a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood," added Vishaan Chakrabarti, director, Manhattan office, New York City Department of City Planning.

The High Line aims to be the centerpiece for the entire area. In 1999, neighborhood residents founded Friends of the High Line with the mission of converting the structure to an elevated public space.. In December 2002, the city the first step in converting the High Line to a public walkway through federal rails-to-trails legislation. According to Friends, CSX, a rail and shipping company based in Richmond, VA, owns the High Line and the rail easement atop it. The land beneath the structure is owned in parcels by the state, the city and more than 20 private property owners. Earlier in the summer, New York City Council speaker Gifford Miller said there would be a $15.75 million funding commitment the High Line reconstruction. Total costs of the plan could not be determined as much of the funds will come from private sources.

New construction closest to the High Line will be governed by special controls that restrict height and setbacks. Property owners of the land beneath the High Line will receive a transfer of floor area to air space to buildings to the west. Another thought is to allow development such as restaurants if a developer agrees to also construct a stair or elevator for the High Line.

The plan goes before a scoping session in early October and a draft is expected in the spring. A plan for the High Line is expected to be unveiled next summer and the zoning changes could take effect in the fall of 2004.

[billyblancoNYC]

City announces High Line plan

by Anne Michaud

The Department of City Planning announced today that it will allow land owners under the High Line to sell air rights to residential developers along 10th and 11th avenues, potentially erasing any major objection to refashioning the old railway into an elevated promenade park.

The plan for the High Line--a 1.6-mile stretch of abandoned track that runs from West 17th Street to West 30th Street between 10th and 11th avenues--is part of the city’s push to extend midtown Manhattan's business district west to the Hudson River, an initiative that includes the construction of a new Jets stadium. Also called Hudson Yards, the project would dovetail with rezoning West Chelsea.

Property owners South of 30th Street have objected to the city taking over the structure, now that the elevated train no longer uses the tracks. To mollify property owners, city planners proposed the air rights deal at a press conference Wednesday morning.

The city is also considering a "bonus" package, in which it would pay property owners for building a staircase or elevator to the High Line, in exchange for the right to develop property below it. Vishaan Chakrabarti, director of the planning department's Manhattan office, said the city will encourage single-story development under the line, such as restaurants and art galleries.

An advocacy group, the Friends of the High Line, is charged with coming up with a design for a 16,000-square-foot park at the foot of the line at 17th Street.


Copyright 2003, Crain Communications, Inc

[Kris]

Where does the first article come from, Billy? Always mention it.

[billyblancoNYC]

www.thevillager.com

By Albert Amateau


City Planning Commission Chairperson Amanda Burden and her staff last week presented the city’s plan for the future of West Chelsea to nearly 100 people who attended a Community Board 4 forum.


The plan involves creating a Special West Chelsea District in the area now zoned for manufacturing between 10th and 11th Aves. from 16th to 30th Sts., with the stretch between 16th and 18th Sts. extending east of 10th Ave.


The plan calls for high-rise residential buildings along the avenues and a special art gallery-friendly manufacturing zone in the middle of the district. It specifies low-rise development adjacent to the High Line, the now-derelict 1.5-mile railroad viaduct west of 10th Ave., which the city now hopes to transform into an elevated park.


Characterized as “revolutionary” by Community Board 4 chairperson Walter Mankoff, the West Chelsea plan comes after more than a year of consultations between City Planning staff and members of the community board, which has developed its own alternative version.


Although the board and the city agree on the general outlines of the plan, serious differences remain concerning the height of residential development along the avenues and specific guarantees for the creation of affordable housing.


Community board members have a special problem with the City Planning proposal to allow a 400-ft.-tall residential tower to be developed in what is now a parking lot on the block between 17th and 18th Sts. where the High Line crosses from the east side to the west side of 10th Ave.


Nevertheless, Burden told the Sept. 18 forum at the Fulton Senior Center in Chelsea that the plan was “very respectful of the neighborhood.” She said, “It will assure that all building forms will respect existing buildings in the [Chelsea Historic District] to the east and the manufacturing buildings to the west. We have many areas of agreement and some areas of discussion. We don’t think of it as revolutionary; we see it as planning for the future.”


The plan, she added, “would facilitate the reuse of the High Line, the elevated railroad that runs from the fabulous new Meat Market [Gansevoort Market Historic District] all the way to the end of the Special District.” The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Gansevoort Market Historic District between Gansevoort and W. 14th Sts. earlier this month and the City Planning Commission is expected to approve the designation soon.


The next step in the West Chelsea planning process is a scooping session on Thurs. Oct. 2 at the City Planning Department auditorium at 22 Reade St. for an environmental assessment study. A draft environmental impact statement is expected to be certified by City Planning in the spring of next year and the district could become part of the zoning law in the fall of 2004.


Assemblymember Richard Gottfried was concerned about the effect of the plan on artists who live and work in buildings not included in the 1982 Loft Law that legalized loft studios in manufacturing buildings. He estimated that 150 residents in the proposed district are at risk. The proposed special district calls for allowing museums in the manufacturing zone, a use not included in manufacturing zones outside the special district, Gottfried pointed out.


“Protecting loft tenants does not mean we have to jeopardize the manufacturing zone,” Gottfried said. “City Planning has to figure it out, the same way it figured out how to allow museums in the manufacturing zone.” Gottfried insisted that the issue be included in the environmental assessment study.


The day after the forum, City Planning phoned Gottfried to say the department would study ways to protect loft residents in the West Chelsea Special District manufacturing zone.


William Traylor, deputy commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, told the forum that state and city programs could be used to encourage affordable housing in the proposed special district. He also noted that the city controlled sites just outside the district that could include affordable housing. Burden and Veeshan Chakrabarti, City Planning director for Manhattan, also assured the gathering last week that the plan would “include a significant proportion of affordable housing.”


But for community board members including Velma Hill, of Chelsea, and elected officials like Gottfried and City Councilmember Christine Quinn, the statements were not enough.


“I’d like to see some numbers,” said Hill, who noted that City Planning estimated the Special District could include 4,300 new apartments. But she protested that there was no guarantee that any of them would be below market rate. “I’d say to developers, ‘You have to give a little,’ If they can’t, we don’t want them in our neighborhood,” Hill said.


Jimmy Pelsey, a community board member and president of the Tenants Association of the Fulton Houses, a city Housing Authority development, questioned whether current income eligibility standards would help working families. “How much will it take for working families to live in these magnificent building that are going to go up? Everybody doesn’t have a $30,000 a year job. You must build housing for people who can’t afford housing,” Pelsey said.


Most programs that offer incentives to build housing that is 80 percent market rate and 20 percent affordable are geared for families of four that earn 50 percent of median income. Median income in the West Chelsea area is about $62,000.


Janice McGuire, a board member and director of the Hudson Guild, said housing for middle-income and low-income families should be written into the plan.


Lee Compton, co-chairperson of the community board’s Chelsea Planning Committee, lauded the plan as an “ingenious and artistic approach to zoning,” but he said there was a big problem with the proposal for a 400-ft residential tower on the parking lot west of 10th Avenue between 17th and 18th Sts.,


“It’s absurd in relation to the context of the neighborhood. There is nothing remotely like it,” Compton said. The community board recommends a height limit of 280 ft. for the site, Compton added.


City Planning proposed the taller height limit on the parking lot on the west side of the High Line in exchange for a public space on the east side of the viaduct, which would serve as a plaza for “a grand entrance” to the viaduct when it becomes a public park.


But immediately adjacent to the High Line, the city would allow one- or two-story buildings that could accommodate uses like cafés at the High Line level. Property owners along the High Line would be able to sell development rights to residential developers in the high-rise zones along 10th and 11th Aves. and in the north end of the district between 28th and 30th Sts.


For many Chelsea residents, the proposed height limits of 125 to 145 ft. along 10th Ave. are far out of scale with most of the neighborhood on the east side of the avenue. Mary Swartz, president of the Chelsea 400 Block Association, which covers blocks between Ninth and 10th Aves., said the high-rises would create a wall between the special district and the rest of Chelsea. She backs an 80-ft. height limit.


Bruce Smith, development director of the General Theological Seminary, said the height of proposed development along 10th Ave. was out of scale with the five-story buildings of the seminary, which is in the Chelsea Historic District. Smith also urged specific provisions for affordable housing.


Frank Eady, a board member and Chelsea resident for 30 years, called for creation of a Chelsea Waterfront District west of 11th Ave.


Hilda Regier, a former community board member, declared that the height of buildings should taper down toward the waterfront. She also took issue with City Planning’s characterization of “noxious uses” regarding auto repair shops. “Some uses you find noxious are useful for the people who live here,” she said.

[Kris]

Thanks.

[Kris]

Special West Chelsea District Rezoning Proposal (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/westchelsea/westchelsea1.html)

[Kris]

November 2, 2003

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

From Rail to Ruin

By KENNETH T. JACKSON

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/11/02/opinion/02JACK.large.jpg
Abelardo Morell

Manhattan has secrets. Despite millions of daytime residents and hundreds of skyscrapers, it has places as unexpected and out-of-the way as Emily Dickinson's home in Amherst, Mass. One thinks of Chumley's, a former speakeasy on Bedford Street; of Pomander Walk, a private row of Tudor-style cottages out of sight between 94th and 95th Streets; of Sylvan Terrace, a pedestrian-only passageway to the Morris-Jumel mansion with a set of matched wooden row houses; and of half a hundred other spots unknown to ordinary passersby.

But the quirkiest and most invisible place in all of New York City is the High Line, an elevated railroad spur stretching 1.45 miles from the Jacob Javits Convention Center to Gansevoort Street in the once grimy (and now fashionable) meatpacking district. A concrete and steel structure two stories above the sidewalk, it is so big that anyone can see it, but so nondescript and so much a part of the urban landscape that it mostly goes unnoticed.

The High Line was once the southernmost part of Manhattan's major freight route. Built in 1866, the 13-mile-long New York Central and Hudson River Railroad entered the island at Inwood and then ran alongside the Hudson River (through what later became Riverside Park) to 72nd Street. The tracks then continued south on city streets, mostly 11th Avenue, to St. John's Park, bordered by Varick, Hudson, Beach and Laight Streets just below Canal Street. Because the route was at grade all the way, it disrupted traffic and was so dangerous that a rider on horseback had to ride in front of the trains with a red flag. Even so, it earned its nickname, "Death Avenue," honestly.

The High Line was conceived in the late 1920's. One purpose of the $100 million project was to eliminate "Death Avenue" by putting the tracks below grade between 60th and 34th Streets and then two stories above the ground south of that point. Another purpose was to stimulate manufacturing in what was then the most productive and important industrial city in the world. To achieve this end, the two-story High Line viaduct would run through the middle of the block between 10th and 11th Avenues, passing either over or through the structures along the way, making deliveries of raw materials, milk and meat directly into warehouses or factories that were built to allow a train to run through them.

The most difficult engineering feat involved sending heavy freight trains directly through the famed Bell Telephone Laboratories building at Bethune Street. In order to eliminate vibrations that would have disrupted precision instruments, the railroad built caissons independent of the building. Other new structures that accommodated the viaduct included buildings for Swift & Company, the Cudahy Packing Company, and the National Biscuit Company (now the site of Chelsea Market).

The High Line was a good idea. Unfortunately, it didn't work. When the first train rumbled along the track on Aug. 1, 1933, making a delivery to the warehouse of R. C. Williams & Company at 25th Street, manufacturing in New York City was already in decline, the nation was in the middle of the Depression and railroads were languishing across the land. By 1938, more than 77,500 track miles, one-third of the national total, were in receivership.

The High Line had only a few good years, and those were mostly during World War II, when Gotham was the major transshipment point for troops, weapons and supplies heading for the European theater of operations. But after Americans rediscovered their cars and trucks in the postwar years, railroads resumed their long decline. Between the end of the war and 1970, New York area railroads lost half their freight tonnage. The High Line was no exception. Built to last for centuries, it carried its final train, loaded, perhaps apocryphally, with frozen turkeys, in 1980.

Twenty-three years later the High Line still stands. When I first walked along the abandoned tracks in 1982, access to the structure was easy, via any of several sets of stairs. When I ventured up there this fall, I had to have an escort and sign a waiver. But the hassle was worth it. For once I stepped onto the tracks, I entered another world. On a cool New York morning, I saw hyacinths, irises, onion grass and a lone apple tree. The only living creatures I saw were of the winged variety, and they probably find it a blessed miracle that a quiet resting place is available in such an improbable place. (There are no people up there regularly, so no food and thus no rats.)

In places, the track is lined with Art Deco railings. Within these incongruously elegant bounds, vegetation has taken over the rail bed, creating a narrow green walkway past funky nightclubs, aging factories and warehouses, and both old and new apartment buildings. The juxtaposition of high density urban development with hardy urban nature is nowhere on earth so stark or so exciting.

Sadly, the entire structure is off limits to ordinary citizens, which is necessary because the path is uneven and tricky, the old stairways have rusted and broken glass is a threat. And even if you are willing to ignore "No Trespassing" signs and the possibility of arrest, you must be skinny, young and adventurous to slither under, over, or through the barricades.

New York deserves better. The High Line deserves better. A failure as a railroad, it can be successful in a new role more appropriate for 21st century New York. Just as everyone loves Central Park because its meadows and glades allow us to forget that we are in the midst of a huge city, a High Line Park could become a public open space of an altogether different sort, a place that celebrates density and diversity, that shows us how nature can persevere in even the grittiest circumstances, that enables us to understand history not through a book or through a movie but through our own eyes. There is even some precedent for the idea of transforming the High Line into a greenspace. Ten years ago, Paris made an elevated park, the Promenade Plantée, out of an abandoned train viaduct.

Fortunately, the stars are in alignment for such a venture. One group, the Friends of the High Line, has been mobilizing support for the notion for several years now. And while Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani favored tearing down the structure and opening the area to development, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and the City Council as a whole have all publicly endorsed the idea of a public park on the railroad bed. The Republican leadership, in town next summer for their convention, could be enlisted in the effort. And couldn't a High Line Park be incorporated in plans to help lure the Olympics to town in 2012?

Cynical New Yorkers will believe it when they see it. There are a host of development, zoning, and legal issues that could easily undermine the plan or delay it for so long that the High Line could become the West Side version of the Second Avenue Subway. We all know of exciting proposals that never made it beyond the drawing board.

We can't let that happen to the High Line. New York needs more spaces to breathe, more spaces where the city can celebrate its past and its uniqueness. The Hudson River metropolis is not the prettiest or the cleanest or the easiest city in which to live. But it has grown to prominence over the past four centuries by giving people, places and ideas a second chance. The Tweed Courthouse scandalized the nation when it was built 130 years ago, and for decades it stood as a symbol of urban corruption. Recently renovated and refurbished, it now stands in elegance and floodlights as the home of the Department of Education. The High Line can be another story of redemption in New York.

Kenneth T. Jackson, professor of history at Columbia University, is president of the New-York Historical Society. Abelardo Morell, professor of art at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, is author of ‘‘A Book of Books.’’

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

The competition entry by Gisue Hariri of Hariri and Hariri:

http://www.archidose.org/Nov03/highline1.jpg
http://www.archidose.org/Nov03/highline2.jpg
http://www.archidose.org/Nov03/highline5.jpg

http://www.archidose.org/Nov03/111003.html

[Kris]

http://homepage.mac.com/paytonc/highline

http://www.bluejake.com/images/2002_highline/index.htm

[Kris]

Friends of the High Line and NYC Issue Request for Qualifications for High Line Master Plan (http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/Feature131.htm)

[Kris]

The Greening of the High Line (http://www.gothamgazette.com/community/3/majorissues/86)

[Kris]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

Jets toss lifeline to the High Line

By MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

Friday, April 16th, 2004

The Jets plan to tear down a piece of the High Line elevated railway and then rebuild a portion as an entrance to a new West Side stadium, the Daily News has learned.

The Jets also propose to link the abandoned 1.45-mile line to a new park created above the West Side Highway.

The team plans to dismantle about a quarter-mile of the line and rebuild half that section to connect to the proposed 75,000-seat football stadium.

The High Line, built in the 1930s to remove dangerous trains from Manhattan's streets, spans 22 blocks from 34th St. to Gansevoort St. No trains have run on it since 1980.

Below the line on 30th St. between 11th and 12th Aves., the Jets are proposing a new street market that would feature art, antiques, crafts and furniture.

The Jets' plans for the High Line will be formally unveiled today at a day-long Regional Plan Association forum on the far West Side.

In March, Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki announced a $2.8 billion plan to build a stadium for the football team and expand the Javits Convention Center, including $1.3 billion in public funding.

Last year, city officials announced an ambitious plan to transform the rail line into an elevated park. Jets executives said their proposal complements that plan.

"We think that the New York Sports and Convention Center can breathe new life into the High Line," said Thad Sheely, the Jets' vice president for development.

The proposal has some strong backers.

"We're pleased that the New York Jets have recognized the value of the High Line and made its preservation and reuse a priority," said Robert Hammond, co-founder of the Friends of the High Line.

But City Councilwoman Christine Quinn (D-Chelsea), who is against the stadium, called the Jets' High Line proposal "a drop in the bucket."

Brian Hatch, who runs NewYorkGames.org, which also opposes the stadium, said the High Line should be preserved in its entirety. "When we get the stadium moved to Queens, we can come up with a plan for that area that will preserve the High Line," he said.

[thomasjfletcher]

Sorry-
in July somebody asked me about access points-

ACCESS- for those interested

you can walk up the ramp at 34th and Tenth

or use the stairs in Chelsea, at 17th and Tenth Ave

(opposite the Park Restaurant)

be careful

also, see the link
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/CHE029-TheHighLine.htm

for some more pix and downloadable plan and section .dwgs.
cheers
tom

[Kris]

SEVEN DESIGN TEAMS SHORT-LISTED FOR HIGH LINE MASTER PLAN
TEAM SELECTION EXPECTED IN FALL 2004

April 20, 2004—Friends of the High Line (FHL) and the City of New York announced today that seven teams of architects, landscape architects, engineers, planners, and other design professionals are invited to compete to create a master plan for the High Line, an elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side.

Each of the seven teams is led by an architecture, landscape architecture, or planning firm, or two or more firms joined in collaborative leadership. In alphabetical order:

• Field Operations (James Corner); Diller + Scofidio + Renfro
• Zaha Hadid Architects
• Steven Holl Architects
• Latz + Partner; The Saratoga Associates
• Rogers Marvel Architects; Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
• OpenMeshWork.ORG: OpenOffice (Lyn Rice); Mesh Architectures (Eric Liftin); Work Architecture Company (Amale Andraos, Dan Wood)
• TerraGRAM: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates; D.I.R.T. Studio (Julie Bargmann); Beyer Blinder Belle (Neil Kittredge)

The teams were selected from 52 responses to a Request for Qualifications that was released jointly by the City of New York and FHL on March 1, 2004. The conversion of the High Line to public open space has been a shared goal of the City and FHL since December 2002, when the City filed a federal petition to convert the structure to public open space through the federal "rail-banking" program.

"We are thrilled that teams of this caliber will be considered to transform the High Line into one of the most unique and exciting public spaces in the City of New York," said City Planning Director Amanda M. Burden. "This process will form the backbone of one of the most significant aspects of the Bloomberg Administration's redevelopment plans for Manhattan's west side, enhancing the desirability of West Chelsea and the Hudson Yards to the north, as well as serving as an attraction for visitors to New York City. We are excited to be working with Friends of the High Line in this joint effort to convert the High Line into a spectacular public amenity."

Next Steps in the Selection Process: 2-Stage RFP and Team Selection

Each of the seven short-listed firms will now receive the first stage of a Request for Proposals (RFP), which asks them to further detail their proposed approach to the High Line's conversion. Based on their responses, the seven teams will be narrowed down to three finalists. Those finalists will receive the second stage of the RFP, requesting graphic representations of possible design concepts for the Line as a whole. The selection of a design team is expected by Fall 2004.

"It's important to emphasize that we're selecting a team through this process-not a final design or master plan," said Robert Hammond, Co-Founder, Friends of the High Line. "Starting this fall, the team we select will work with active participation from the community and other affected stakeholders to develop a master plan that makes the most of the amazing opportunity offered by the High Line."

Recent Funding Progress

On March 25, Congressman Jerrold Nadler included $5 million for the High Line in the House version of the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU), the six-year federal transportation bill. The bill must still go through a House and Senate conference process and be signed by the President.

Earlier this year, $500,000 for the High Line was secured by Senators Schumer and Clinton and Congressman Nadler in the 2004 Transportation Bill. In July 2003, New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller announced a $15.75 million commitment in capital funds for the High Line's conversion to public open space. In Fall 2003, Assembly Member Richard Gottfried announced a $50,000 High Line allocation.

Project History

The High Line, a 1.5-mile-long elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side, was built in the 1930s to remove freight trains from City streets. It hasn't been used for rail freight since 1980. In December, 2002, the City petitioned the federal board with jurisdiction over the Line to convert it to an elevated pedestrian walkway and public open space.

In 2003, Friends of the High Line sponsored "Designing the High Line," an open, international ideas competition. 720 entrants from 36 countries submitted ideas, many of which were exhibited at Grand Central Terminal in July 2003.

"The team selection process for the master plan is very different from the ideas competition," said Hammond. "The competition was to generate exciting, visionary ideas, but those ideas didn't have to be build-able or make economic sense. The process we're going through now will lead to a design for the High Line that is as spectacular and unusual as the High Line itself-a design that can be built and maintained so that this great new amenity stays beautiful and compelling in the decades ahead, a retreat that New Yorkers will want to return to again and again."

For updates on the design team selection process and all other news related to the High Line, please go to http://www.thehighline.org and subscribe to FHL's E-Mail Newsletter.

Contact: Robert Hammond, (212) 206-9922; robert@thehighline.org

[thomasjfletcher]

Was up the highline again a couple of days ago. Spring has sprung up there, but it still isn't anywhere near its screaming midsummer glory. We went up the ramp at 34th (deftly skirting the security guard- not difficult) and walked all the way along. Was good. We found that the traditional exit - the stairs in the carpark opposite the Park restaurant on tenth- were very well chained and razorwired, so we had to walk all the way back. Was nice anyway. There were some very precarious exit points but we decided that we were too old for that kind of thing.


http://thomasjfletcher.com/IMAGES/highline26.jpg

http://thomasjfletcher.com/IMAGES/highline28.jpg

http://thomasjfletcher.com/IMAGES/highline42.jpg

the full series can be seen at-
http://nyc-architecture.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5

cheers

Tom

[NYatKNIGHT]

You guys make a walk on the Highline more fun than I ever had up there. Maybe I should bring beer next time.

[Moe14]

They supposedly cleaned it up a little while ago, but I was up there about a week afterward and it looked the damn same to me.

It's not too precarious to get down on W. 13th street - plus it's like a fun obstable course, and it really requires pretty minimal athleticism. I'd bet some kids even climb up that way. Someone even put a ladder up to the hole in the roof of the loading dock to help you out. And you can catch a beer at Hogs and Heifers right down the block afterward!

I really don't think that security guard - or anyone - much cares if people climb up there (a good thing, because people do it all the time). Which somewhat surprises me because it passes over the LIRR Rail Yards.

[thomasjfletcher]

FRONT-PAGE LOS ANGELES TIMES ARTICLE ABOUT THE HIGH LINE

On Saturday, May 15, the Los Angeles Times ran a comprehensive front-page article by Robert Lee Hotz about FHL's efforts to preserve and reuse the High Line. Along with its prominent placement and its thoughtful reporting, the article is notable for the way it defines the High Line as a project of national significance and includes details about other elevated rail-trail projects in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Rotterdam that have been influenced by FHL's work.

COLUMN ONE
An Eden Above the City

An abandoned overhead railway in Manhattan is an eyesore to many. But others see untapped potential in the rare open space.


http://www.thehighline.org/press/articles/latimes_051504/12639734.jpg

Seeing Potential
(Tina Fineberg / For The Times)

http://www.thehighline.org/press/articles/latimes_051504/12639702.jpg

Unused Open Space
(Tina Fineberg / For The Times)
Graphics


A long walk waiting
May 15, 2004
Times Headlines

An Eden Above the City


By Robert Lee Hotz, Times Staff Writer


NEW YORK — In the warrens of Manhattan, a meadow hovers above the asphalt outwash of warehouses and abandoned factories.

It flowers on a vacant viaduct with a seasonal canopy of Queen Anne's lace, purple aster, hyacinth, wild cherry, scallions, moss and iris — seeded by vagrant birds and the wind.

They call it the High Line.

The derelict ribbon of elevated railway threads through the upper stories of Manhattan's far West Side for almost 1 1/2 miles.

The tracks, unused for nearly a quarter-century, disappear into warehouses and dodge between buildings in an architectural game of hide-and-seek.

While thousands of people scurry under its stained steel supports every day, unaware of what is overhead, the High Line has become nature's own urban renewal project.

Ambitious redevelopment plans also are blooming here.

Where generations of New Yorkers had only seen a rusting eyesore that blocked the light, two urban pioneers saw the potential for a park in a metropolis starved for open space. After all, local soccer leagues play matches on a rooftop and golfers practice fairway drives on a pier.

When freelance writer Joshua David and painter Robert Hammond first followed their curiosity over a barbed-wire fence onto the High Line five years ago, they found themselves on an elevated avenue of greenery that overlooked the art galleries of Chelsea and the designer boutiques of the Meatpacking District — two of the city's newly fashionable neighborhoods.

To the west, there were shimmering vistas of the Hudson River; to the east, the Empire State Building towered.

The abandoned railway, the pair realized, could become a place where pedestrians could stroll unimpeded for 22 blocks, suspended nearly 30 feet in places above the hustle of the streets.

"It is a beautiful, dreamy, evocative landscape … a unique urban ecosystem," David said. "Yet it was relatively invisible."

People can't easily reach the High Line from the street. The stairways have vanished and the entrances — although hidden — are protected by padlocks and railroad security.

David and Hammond were galvanized by the idea that an open space of such magnitude could exist in New York City and that no one could get to it.

The pair launched the Friends of the High Line preservation drive, which quickly became one of the city's most fashionable causes. Today, it has about 6,000 supporters and a $1-million annual budget. There is a staff of seven, a newsletter, a promotional video, a website and an ambitious outreach program. A yearly fundraiser, hosted by fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and actor Edward Norton, has become a staple on New York's society pages.

"They have been very creative in generating a buzz and engaging people," said Frank Uffen, managing director of New Amsterdam Consultants, a firm involved in redeveloping a mile-long viaduct in downtown Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Architects and designers now nurture visions of an urban wilderness on the High Line — along with schemes for windmill farms, botanical gardens, an aerial tramway and, improbably, overhead cow pastures, all connected to the street by elevators and stairs.

One designer offered a plan for turning the rail line into an inner-city roller coaster. Another proposed creation of a High Line swimming pool, with lap lanes 1 1/2 miles long.

This month, David and Hammond are helping city planners evaluate seven design teams competing to oversee development of a master plan. The seven were picked in April from 52 groups of architects, urban planners and landscape designers.

David and Hammond estimate the price tag for renovation and landscaping will be $40 million to $60 million, to be paid with public and private funds.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Vintage viaducts are the newest enthusiasm of urban preservationists recycling America's past.

Community groups from Chicago to Philadelphia to the Florida Keys have mobilized to turn the abandoned rail lines into parks — many inspired by the transformation of a crumbling 19th century Parisian viaduct into a 3-mile-long botanical garden.

The Promenade Plantee, which opened in 1998, is linked by elevators and stairways to the Avenue Daumesnil nearby. In the space beneath its 60 stone arches, Paris urban planners encouraged construction of art galleries, cafes and artisans' studios.

As much as anything, said transportation archeologist Thomas Flagg, the reclamation projects have arisen from a change of heart toward abandoned industrial structures.

Nostalgia for a vanishing manufacturing economy joins with post-modern artistic sensibilities and, driven by real estate speculation, blight becomes beauty.

"All the space is getting filled in," said Ben Helphand, who recently helped organize Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail to reclaim 37 rail bridges along Chicago's North Side. "What do you have left but these unused industrial areas?

"You see them in a new light. The reinvention of these is happening all over the place."

In Florida, state park planners are piecing together the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail by converting unused rail lines and reclaiming 17 railroad bridges. They expect the trail to run 106 miles, from Key Largo to Key West.

In the same spirit, Philadelphia neighborhood activists last year organized to transform a 4.7-mile-long elevated railway called the Reading Viaduct into a pedestrian parkway.

"We have been living with this thing for a long time and dreaming it could be something else," said local artist Sarah McEneaney, who helped organize the preservation drive.

"It goes through all these different neighborhoods that are not really tied together. The viaduct could become a community bridge."

What spurred her to take action?

One day, she heard Joshua David at a neighborhood meeting describe his hopes for the High Line.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The High Line, bordering 10th Avenue, is 296,000 square feet of undeveloped space in a city where a $1-million, two-bedroom apartment can fit into 980 square feet.

Completed in 1934, it was part of the $125-million West Side Improvement Project, which was an astronomical public investment for the height of the Depression.

The project was designed to speed rail shipments to the area's factories, while also removing a major public danger.

By raising the railroad above street level, officials eliminated dozens of hazardous track crossings: So many pedestrians had been killed or maimed in rail accidents that the street had come to be known as "Death Avenue."

The viaduct, broad enough to carry two freight trains at a time, snakes past third-story windows and through elevated warehouse sidings.

When the High Line was built, the project required private right-of-way agreements through 350 properties, according to records of the New York Central Railroad, which originally owned it. A total of 640 buildings had to be removed.

The last train rolled down those tracks in 1980, carrying a load of frozen turkeys. By that time, trucks had overtaken trains as the preferred method for freight shipments. The West Side industries the viaduct served also had withered. Factories and warehouses were shuttered.

People have been fighting over the future of the High Line ever since.

Conrail now owns the line through a subsidiary, and CSX, the railroad conglomerate, has managed the structure since 1999. While the railroad has been studiously neutral about the fate of the High Line, officials are eager to see some resolution, said CSX project management consultant Lauri Izes.

The parcels of land directly beneath the viaduct are owned by New York state, New York City and 20 private owners — many of whom have long sought its demolition.

The High Line is, at its essence, a right of passage.

The easement in the air that the railroad created allowed movement across so many public and private boundaries that it would be impossible to re-create today, community planners say.

If the physical structure were demolished, that intangible asset would vanish as well.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In a city that seethes with real estate schemes and redevelopment intrigue, Hammond and David have orchestrated a dramatic reversal.

Five years ago, demolition of the High Line seemed all but assured. Landlords and small businesses that owned the land directly below the High Line were eager to see it cleared away, in the hope that their property values would soar.

Today, reclamation and renovation appear almost certain.

"They have taken the momentum away from the developers who wanted to tear it down," Flagg said. "Their dedication to creating a public good out of all this seems to be carrying the day."

When Hammond, 34, and David, 40, began their quest, there was virtually unanimous political support for demolition of the High Line.

Now, Republican Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has endorsed the project, as have the state's two Democratic U.S. senators, Charles E. Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

City Council Speaker Gifford Miller recently earmarked $15 million to plan and design the park, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) included $5 million for the High Line in the House version of the pending six-year federal transportation bill.

The state has yet to weigh in. Federal approvals needed for the park project are in abeyance, partly because the commissions involved have long lacked enough members for a valid vote.

"We still have a ways to go," Hammond said. "There are hurdles. Political coalitions are always fragile."

But if all goes according to plan, work could begin this fall on a final design. A competition last year drew 720 design proposals from 36 countries, many of which were exhibited at Grand Central Terminal. These all were exercises in imagination, meant only to explore the possibilities.

Before any real design begins, city officials must choose a team from among the seven candidates under consideration. That team will help manage development of final plans. Those plans must be approved by the city.

For all the fashionable enthusiasm, however, the future of the High Line depends in large measure on the fate of other ambitious projects proposed for this section of Manhattan.

The line begins to the north, at the site of the New York Jets' proposed stadium along the Hudson River. The football team wants to turn a quarter-mile of the High Line into a pedestrian walkway that would lead into a 75,000-seat stadium. An expansion of the nearby convention center also is being debated.

The viaduct ends to the south over Gansevoort Market in the Meatpacking District, where David and Hammond recently opened a third-floor office for the High Line group they founded.

The view from their window encompasses the past and the future of the High Line neighborhoods.

On one side of the street below, meatpackers in bloody aprons shovel fresh offal from the cobblestones by the Dumpster load. Animal carcasses swing on conveyor hooks along the sidewalk for the purveyors of fresh shin meats, pork and beef.

Across the way, retailers cater to the appetite for fresh attitude. Art galleries, fusion restaurants and stylish boutiques line the street. Stella McCartney and other designers have opened shops.

As unmistakable evidence that the gentry are homesteading here, city planners last year declared the market area a historic preservation district.

City planners also unveiled a rezoning proposal to turn the adjacent High Line neighborhoods into a special redevelopment district.

If approved, the proposal would allow construction of up to 4,200 high-rise apartments and condominiums. The zoning plan would, however, preserve the line and the local warehouses that have become home to more than 200 art galleries.

A harbinger of the streetscape to come can be found at the viaduct's midpoint, where neglect and urban renewal have fostered a modest neighborhood revival.

There, by the corner of West 23rd Street and 10th Avenue, author and Vanity Fair writer Sebastian Junger recently opened a sidewalk cafe. Students, French tourists and local artists loll in the shade cast by the High Line's Art Deco balustrade.

The front of the art galley next door is clad in steel plates that consciously echo the patina of the railroad viaduct.

For now, the High Line passing overhead remains an afterthought.

Wreathed in grape hyacinth, its bulwarks frame parking signs, vintage graffiti and a set of garish billboards.

Gallery-goers mill along the sidewalks, oblivious to the possibilities taking root in the relic above them.

[thomasjfletcher]

FOUR FINALIST TEAMS SELECTED FOR HIGH LINE MASTER PLAN
Proposals on Display at the Center for Architecture from
July 15 through August 14

May 28, 2004—Friends of the High Line (FHL) and the City of New York announced today that four teams of renowned architects, landscape architects, engineers, planners, and other professionals have been selected as finalists to create a master plan for the High Line, an elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side.

"Transforming the High Line into a unique and accessible elevated park will be one of the most important things we will do for future generations in New York City," said Amanda M. Burden, Chair of the City Planning Commission. "The team we choose must be of a caliber that matches that important task. Fortunately, we are selecting from among the finest minds in architecture and landscape design, whose team submissions demonstrate the creative vision necessary for this project. I am thrilled to be taking part in selecting these talented finalists."

Each team is led by an architecture firm, a landscape architecture firm, or multiple firms joined in collaborative leadership. Below, team leads and principal consultants, in alphabetical order. Full team listings can be found at the end of this document:

• Field Operations, landscape architects; Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, architects; Olafur Eliasson, artist; Piet Oudolf, horticulture; Halie Light & L’Observatoire International, lighting.
• Zaha Hadid Architects, architects; Balmori Associates, landscape architects; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (Marilyn Jordan Taylor), architects; studio MDA (Markus Dochantschi), architects.
• Steven Holl Architects, architects; Hargreaves Associates, landscape design; HNTB, technical design.
• TerraGRAM: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, landscape architects; D.I.R.T. Studio (Julie Bargmann), industrial site design; Beyer Blinder Belle (Neil Kittredge), urban design.


Team Visions on Display at the Center for Architecture July 15 – August 14
The design approaches of the finalist teams will be exhibited at the Center for Architecture starting Thursday, July 15, when an opening night panel discussion will be moderated by Rick Bell, Executive Director of AIA New York Chapter. The exhibition will run through August 14.

Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place
New York, NY 10012
(212) 683-0023
Open Monday through Friday, 9am to 8pm; Saturday, 11am to 5pm


Team Selection Process
The process of selecting a design team for the High Line master plan began on March 1, 2004, when the City of New York and FHL jointly issued a Request for Qualifications, eliciting 52 responses. A short list of seven teams was announced on April 20, and these short-listed teams received a two-stage Request for Proposals (RFP). On May 27, a Steering Committee of City and FHL representatives selected the four finalist teams based on their responses to the first stage of the RFP.


Next Steps
The four finalist teams will submit responses to the second stage of the RFP in early July. Those responses will include visions for the High Line as a whole, and they will specifically address access systems, the High Line's interaction with neighboring buildings, and treatment of the structure's underside and its relation to the street. This work will be the focus of the July 15 – August 14 exhibition at the Center for Architecture. It will also inform the final team selection, which will be made later this summer.

"It's important to emphasize that we're selecting a team through this process, not a final design or master plan," said Robert Hammond, co-founder of Friends of the High Line. "Once selected, the team will work with the community, FHL, the City, and all other interested stakeholders to develop the master plan."


Recent Funding Progress
On March 25, Congressman Jerrold Nadler included $5 million for the High Line in the House version of the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU), the six-year federal transportation bill. The bill must still go through a House and Senate conference process and be signed by the President.

Earlier this year, Senators Schumer and Clinton and Congressman Nadler secured $500,000 for the High Line in the 2004 Transportation Appropriations bill. In July 2003, New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller announced a $15.75 million commitment in capital funds for the High Line's conversion to public open space. In Fall 2003, Assembly Member Richard Gottfried announced a $50,000 High Line allocation.


Project History
The High Line, a 1.5-mile-long elevated rail structure on Manhattan's West Side running from 34th Street to Gansevoort Street, was built in the 1930s to remove freight trains from City streets. It has not been used for rail freight since 1980. In December, 2002, the City petitioned the federal board with jurisdiction over the Line to convert it to an elevated pedestrian walkway and public open space.

In 2003, Friends of the High Line sponsored "Designing the High Line," an open, international ideas competition. 720 entrants from 36 countries submitted ideas, many of which were exhibited at Grand Central Terminal in July 2003.

"The team selection process for the master plan is very different from the ideas competition," said Hammond. "The competition was to generate exciting, visionary ideas, but those ideas didn't have to be buildable or make economic sense. The process we're going through now will lead to a design for the High Line that is as spectacular and unusual as the High Line itself—a design that can be built and maintained so that this great new amenity stays beautiful and compelling in the decades ahead, a retreat that New Yorkers will want to return to again and again."

For updates on the design team selection process and all other news related to the High Line, please go to http://www.thehighline.org and subscribe to FHL's E-Mail Newsletter.


Complete Listings of Finalist Team Members
• Field Operations, landscape architects; Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, architects; Olafur Eliasson, artist; Piet Oudolf, horticulture; Halie Light & L’Observatoire International, lighting; Mathews-Nielsen, landscape architecture; Buro Happold, structural engineering; Philip Habib Associates, traffic engineering and zoning; ETM Associates, park operation; The Williams Group, economic analysis; VJ Associates, cost estimating; Creative Time, public art; Paula Scher of Pentagram, graphics; Bonakdar Gallery, public outreach; Ducibella, Venter & Santore, security; Robert Silman Associates, structural engineering and historic preservation; Code Consultants, compliance; GRB Environmental Services, environmental engineering and testing.
• Zaha Hadid Architects, architects; Balmori Associates, landscape architects; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (Marilyn Jordan Taylor), architects; studio MDA (Markus Dochantschi), architects; Creative Time, public art; The Kitchen, public art; Public Art Fund, public art; Environmental Risk, Inc., hazardous material testing; Iros Elevator Design, elevator, escalator consultant; Halie Light & L’Observatoire International, lighting; Arup, structure, MEP, acoustic, security, transport, geotechnical, sustainability; Langan Engineering, environmental engineering; Davis Langdon Adamson, cost estimator; William Dailey, building code expeditor; Pentagram, graphic design.
• Steven Holl Architects, architects; Hargreaves Associates, landscape design; HNTB, technical design; Schall & Russo, outreach consulting; Halie Light & L’Observatoire International, lighting; Martin and Mildred Friedman, public arts; David Langdon Adamson, cost; Metropolis, code; Catherine Seavitt Studio, landscape architecture; Bioengineering Group, Inc., sustainable site development; AKRF, environmental strategy planning; Guy Nordenson Associates, structural engineering; Munoz Engineering, surveying; Arup, MEP engineering; ETM Associates, public space management.
• TerraGRAM: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, landscape architects; D.I.R.T. Studio (Julie Bargmann), industrial site design; Beyer Blinder Belle (Neil Kittredge), urban design; ARO, architects; Leslie E. Robertson Associates, structural engineering; 2x4, graphic design; Domingo Gonzales Associates, lighting design; Lynden Miller, public garden design; Nina Bassuk, urban soils and ecology; Ernesto Mark Faunlagui, design consulting; Daniel Frankfurt, PC, civil and structural engineering; Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, geotechnical engineering; Aphrodite Socrates, hazardous material management; GEOD, land surveying; Mathews-Nielsen Landscape Architects, street architecture, maintenance; Accu-Cost, cost estimating; Battle McCarthy, sustainability consulting; Rocky Mountain Institute, environmental planning; Arup, traffic engineering; Charles McKinney, park operations consulting; Luc Sante, urban history; Public Art Fund, arts programming; RFR Engineering, infrastructural history; James Turrell, artist.



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Contact
Joshua David, FHL, (212) 206-9922;
josh@thehighline.org

Meghan Dotter, RF/Binder, (212) 994-7552;
meghan.dotter@rfbinder.com

[krulltime]

New Park Is Right On Track

By Tom Topousis, May 31, 2004

One of New York's hidden treasures - a rusting elevated railroad that stretches down Manhattan's West Side - is about to take its first step toward a public debut. Four design teams were picked last week to compete for the job of turning the long-dormant freight railroad into the city's newest public park.

Running more than a mile, from the West Side railroad yards at 30th Street to the Meatpacking District, the High Line is an oasis in the sky now covered with wildflowers and trees and inhabited by birds and butterflies.

"The High Line is just so magical," said city Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden. "I always said that if I were in a position of power or influence, saving it would be one of the first things that I would do."

The future wasn't always so bright for the High Line, last used to carry freight in 1982. Just four years ago, the city was ready to begin demolition on the structure.

But two West Siders who were fascinated with the structure began a drive to save the railroad, recognizing its potential as a public project that would lift New Yorkers 35 feet above the street and what seems a world away from the congestion below.

Robert Hammond and Joshua David in 1999 formed a group called Friends of the High Line, which began to turn the tide from demolition to preservation. Their efforts won over officials in the Bloomberg administration.

"It's so easy to live close to it and never really understand what it is," said David. "But just the idea that this hidden structure existed and ran 22 blocks was fascinating to me."

In a rare walk along the High Line - shut off from the public by its operator, CSX Railroad - The Post caught a glimpse of Manhattan from the elevated tracks, which have become a nature preserve.

Between two tall warehouses, a small forest has sprouted. Near 14th Street, a wild cherry tree is taking root beside a rusting railroad switch. Hyacinth, Queen Anne's lace and purple aster flourish in the sun-drenched sections of the old viaduct.

A final design for the railroad's conversion will be picked in July, after the three teams put their proposals up for public display.

With an estimated $65 million price tag, the project is expected to be open to the public late in 2006.

NYPOST

[krulltime]

The competition entry by Gisue Hariri of Hariri and Hariri:

http://www.archidose.org/Nov03/highline1.jpg
http://www.archidose.org/Nov03/highline2.jpg
http://www.archidose.org/Nov03/highline5.jpg

http://www.archidose.org/Nov03/111003.html

I like this design. It was getting interesting..well too bad. :cry:

[Stern]

http://www.thehighline.org/img/newsletter/062504centerforarch/top.gif
http://www.thehighline.org/img/newsletter/062504centerforarch/copy.gif

[Kris]

July 11, 2004

Elevated Visions

By JULIE V. IOVINE

Slide Show: Proposals for the High Line (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2004/07/07/arts/20040711_IOVI_SLIDESHOW_1.html)

THE High Line is an abandoned 1.5-mile stretch of overgrown railroad viaduct that runs from the Meatpacking district to Hell's Kitchen — and straight into the imaginations of a growing number of New Yorkers who see it as proof that, even in an urban jungle, the forces of nature are still at work.

The idea to turn the old freight route, once condemned to demolition, into a public park has gained momentum over the past five years, culminating in a design competition that attracted 52 entries. On July 16 the proposals of four finalists will go on display at the Center for Architecture on LaGuardia Place near