High Line (New York)

Logo of the "Friends of the HL"

High Line map
(as of September 2014)

The High Line on West 20th Street, transformed into a park

The High Line is a 2.33 kilometer long, no longer used freight train route in the west of Manhattan , which was converted into a park, the High Line Park , from 2006 to 2019 . The first section was opened to the public in June 2009. The third section of the park opened on September 21, 2014 and the last "the Spur" on June 5, 2019.

Unlike the rest of New York City's elevated railway network , the High Line was not built for passenger traffic, but was built as a former section of the West Side Freight Line for freight traffic. The preserved part of the elevated railway viaduct runs from West 34th Street (between 10th Avenue and 12th Avenue) in Hell's Kitchen to Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District .

It is visited by around seven million visitors annually.

history

Lines around 1900

The High Line in 1936 - Train crossing the Bell Laboratories Building

Rail connection in the former Merchants Refrigerating Company Warehouse , now walled up

The Meatpacking District , an industrial park in west Manhattan within sight of the Hudson River , has been accessible since 1847 by the West Side Freight Line, which ran on 10th Avenue from 35th Street to Chambers Street (junction with Hudson Street) . In 1868 a terminus at St. John's Park, the so-called St. John's Park Terminal, was opened - the southernmost section from St. John's Park to Chambers Street was then closed.

The traffic of the West Side Line freight trains on a street resulted in numerous accidents with pedestrians and vehicles, which earned 10th Avenue the name of Death Avenue . The New York Central Railroad , the City and the State of New York therefore agreed in 1929 as part of an urban renewal program to replace the route with an elevated railway line - today's so-called High Line.

In 1932 the High Line went into operation. The industrial operations in West Chelsea and the meatpacking district were developed through building connections on the second and third floors of the factories and warehouses. The High Line terminus and depot was between Clarkson Street and Spring Street, and the name St. John's Park Terminal was also used for the new terminal.

In the 1950s, the demand for rail connections by the factories and butcher's shops decreased because, due to the strong expansion of the highway network, freight traffic shifted more and more to trucks, and on the other hand, the industrial companies left the area. In the 1960s, the southern section of the High Line between Gansevoort Street and Clarkson Street was demolished. Of the southern section, only the St. John's Park Terminal building and a short section through the building between Bethune and Bank Street at the former headquarters of Bell Telephone Laboratories - the building is now home to the Westbeth Artists Community . The last train on the High Line ran in the fall of 1980.

Since the redesign to a park (see below), the area on both sides of the route has become a preferred location for companies, especially in the creative industry. Various buildings on both sides have been or are being restored and marketed as high-quality (residential) space in a preferred location.

Redesign to a park

Map with access points prior to the opening of the last, northern section in 2014
(map not up-to-date)

Picture windows of the High Line near Chelsea Market
House passage of the High Line through the new hotel building of the "Standard" (New York)
Wooden benches on the old high line tracks
Permanent work of art on the inside of a window east of the route
Mural Art west of the High Line between W 28th and W 29th St
High Line Park, construction site May 2009 under the Standard Hotel

In 1991, a five-block section at the southern end of the High Line was demolished, leaving only a remnant between 34th Street near the Javits Convention Center and Gansevoort Street in the West Village . Local entrepreneurs wanted to tear down the High Line in order to gain building space. A demolition permit from the city administration was already in place when the Friends of the High Line initiative was founded by residents in 1999 to preserve the building.

After the demolition was averted, the initiative proposed the creation of a public park on the elevated route as a subsequent use. The Promenade Plantée in the 12th arrondissement of Paris from the Place de la Bastille to the Boulevard périphérique served as a model . This concept found many supporters among the local residents, architects, urban and landscape planners as well as artists (for example the actors Edward Norton and Kevin Bacon or the fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg ). In 2004, the City of New York agreed to build a park for 50 million USD.

The project consists of three construction phases. On 10 April 2006 the mayor sat Michael Bloomberg the symbolic first sod . The first phase stretched from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street. Among other things, the Diller + Scofidio office was involved in the design , the planting plan comes from the Dutchman Piet Oudolf . For the design of the park, mainly plant species were chosen that had previously taken possession of the abandoned railway system as ruderal vegetation . The first section of the park was opened to the public on June 8, 2009 (opening times between 7:00 am and 10:00 pm). Wallpaper magazine named the new park Life Enhancer of the Year.

Work on the second section (from 20th to 30th Street) began immediately afterwards. The cost was estimated at 152 million US dollars (then around 110 million euros). Around 70 percent of the construction costs were to be raised through donations organized by the Friends of the High Line . The Friends of the High Line also took care of the maintenance of the facility. This section was inaugurated on June 7, 2011 in the presence of various political leaders (including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ). Since June 8, the construction phase has been accessible to the public via entrances from 23, 26, 28 and 30 streets.

The groundbreaking for the third construction phase called High Line at the Rail Yards (from 30th Street to 34th Street) took place on September 20, 2012. This part of the park was opened on September 21, 2014.

In 2010 the High Line received the "International EGHN Prize" from the European Garden Heritage Network .

Model function for further projects

The High Line Park was or is a model for several similar projects:

the Petite Ceinture in Paris

"Linear Landscapes", on the approach route to the former north-west train station in the 20th district of Brigittenau in Vienna

"High Line Park Vienna", the former route of the Viennese steam light rail or the Viennese electric light rail in Vienna -Heiligenstadt

the "Garden Bridge Over The Thames" by Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of the British Shanghai Expo Pavilion

the parking lane at the former train station Munich Olympiastadion

the Parkbogen Ost in Leipzig

literature

Joshua David, Robert Hammond (2011): High Line, the inside-story of New York City's park in the sky . New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Friends of the High Line (Ed.): Designing the High Line: Gansevoort Street to 30th Street. New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-615-21191-6
Paul Goldberger (text) as well as Diane Cook and Len Jenshel (pictures): Miracles over Manhattan . In: National Geographic Germany 04/2011.
Susanne Kippenberger: New York's green catwalk . In: Tagesspiegel from August 8, 2010 and Die Zeit from August 9, 2010.
Wolfgang Klee: Cowboys in New York. A new attraction: the High Line Park . In: EisenbahnGeschichte Spezial 1: Railways in New York (2013), ISBN 978-3-937189-77-2 , pp. 18f.
Joel Sternfeld : Walking the High Line. Steidl / Pace / MacGill Gallery 2002, ISBN 978-3-88243-726-3