HIGH (AND ACCESSIBLE) IN THE CITY
By Steve Wright
The High Line has sparked a neighborhood renaissance, with hotels, restaurants, apartments and more going up next to it. Old industrial buildings along the High Line are being renovated for modern office, residential and other uses.
The High Line has served as a magnet to famous modern architects, such as Frank Gehry, whose first New York building is located along it. With other modern edifices completed or nearing completion designed by Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, Neil Denari, Shigeru Ban and Robert A.M. Stern, some have dubbed the rebuilding effort "Starchitect Row."
The park runs above the West Side neighborhoods of the Meatpacking District and West Chelsea. The High Line was built in the 1930s as part of a massive infrastructure project that lifted freight traffic 30 feet in the air, removing dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan's largest industrial district.
The trains stopped using the High Line in 1980 and sat abandoned, deteriorating and in danger of demolition for nearly two decades. Friends of the High Line, a community-based non-profit group, formed in 1999 to preserve and maintain the structure as an elevated public park operated under the jurisdiction of the City Department of Parks & Recreation.
Wright has contributed stories about accessible architecture, urban travel and foreign adventure for more than a decade. Contact the Miami-based writer-photographer at stevewright64@yahoo.com
TOMORROW: Part 5
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