Monkdogz Artblog

The High Line opened this week, with Mayor Bloomberg doing the ribbon cutting ceremony.  In an article in the New York Times, Robin Pogrebin reports that the mayor called the High Line “an extraordinary gift to our city’s future” and “it really does live up its highest expectations.”  I have to agree whole heartedly!

I rang Bob to tell him about what it was like and I ran out of superlatives and at one frustrated moment had to resort to an expletive (very unlike me)!  In a way, it was better than I expected.  It’s very contemporary and stylish, yet it maintains so much of the character of its original builders and function.  The original steel sides are elegant in design and sections of the rail tracks weave in and out of the gardens and seating area.  The benches are elegant, the sun loungers whimsical and the raked auditorium style bench seating with a glass window on the bridge spanning 10^th Avenue and looking north up the avenue is inspired.  

It’s was a project birthed in 1999 by a writer and a painter who both wanted to save the abandoned railroad trestle built in the 1930s which was threatened with demolition.  Knowing that the 2.8 mile promenade plantée also known as the Coulée verte in Paris which had opened to the public in 1998 had been so successful, there was an excellent blueprint to work with.  The project has used Federal, City and private money as well as funds raised by Friends of the High Line who led the project.  

So far, the High Line is completed from Gansevoort Street to 20^th Street with an elevator at 16^th Street and stairs also at 14^th, 16^th 18^th streets.  However for the time being access onto the High Line is limited to Gansevoort Street and the elevator at 16^th Street, although exit is possible from the other points.  Nor are dogs currently allowed, (citing fragile plantings) whether that will change or not will be interesting to see.  

There was one sad little food cart supplied by City Bakery on the High Line, but I understand this service will be expanded shortly as well as food court style offerings on the ground level.  If the Viaduc des Arts is used again as a blueprint, where the old brick archways under the promenade plantée were enclosed with glass walls and transformed into artists’ and craftsmen’s studios, the space under the High Line could become even more vibrant.  

Wandering around the Meat Packing District I was amazed at the transformation of this area in the last 3 or 4 years.   It’s vibrant, trendy and dynamic.  The discussions are also well underway for the sale of the property adjacent to the start of the High Line for the new Whitney Museum Satellite.  This will probably extend the current Chelsea gallery district as far south as well.  

As the development of the High Line continues, with plans for the next phase to open from 20^th Street up to 30^th Street by the fall of 2010, the revitalization of Chelsea is bound to continue.  The wonderful atmosphere currently found in the Meat Packing District will hopefully infect neighboring Chelsea and maybe on beyond to Hells Kitchen (or Clinton).  

What ever the future may bring, let me thoroughly recommend a trip to the High Line.  I suspect that you will be pleasantly surprised.  

For more photos, see the New York Times and the High Line galleries.