Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 10 June 2019

New York’s High Line park marks 10 years of transformation

By KAREN MATTHEWS apartment a block east of
Associated Press the High Line shortly before
NEW YORK (AP) — When it opened, said the area
the High Line park opened has changed dramatically.
in New York City, then-May- “Tenth Avenue was always
or Michael Bloomberg pre- parking lots because ev-
dicted the transformation eryone would come over
of the abandoned, elevat- from Jersey or wherever,
ed freight line into an artsy come through the tunnel,
public promenade would park their car and then go
be “an extraordinary gift to do their business,” she said.
our city’s future.” “And then the parking lots
A decade later, there’s no and garages all suddenly
question the High Line has started getting converted
been a resounding success to apartment buildings and
as an engine for tourism galleries and things like
and neighborhood revital- that.” A 2016 study by the
ization. real estate website Street-
An estimated 8 million annu- Easy found that resale val-
al visitors now visit the park, ues for apartments adja-
which threads 1.5 miles (2.4 In this July 11, 2003 file photo, grass and weeds cover the High Line, a 1.5-mile-long elevated steel cent to the High Line rose
kilometers) through a trans- railroad spur built 70 years ago to carry freight trains into the west side of Manhattan. 10% faster than for com-
formed part of Manhattan. Associated Press parable apartments a few
Once a land of industrial go up there I was pretty he said, has been incred- line started in the 1980s af- blocks away.
buildings, parking lots and wowed by it,” said Alex ibly positive. ter the last trains delivered Buildings abutting the High
auto repair businesses, the Reichl, a Queens College Copied around the world their loads, but the preser- Line that have gone up
neighborhood is now an- political science professor — and itself inspired by the vation movement wasn’t since then or are under
chored at one end by the who has written about the Promenade Plantée in Paris universally embraced. For- construction include Zaha
dazzling new home of the High Line for the journal — the High Line marked its mer Mayor Rudy Giuliani Hadid’s 520 W. 28th St.,
Whitney Museum of Ameri- Urban Geography. “But it 10th anniversary by open- thought the tracks were an where an 11-room pent-
can Art and at the other by started to feel to me more ing its final piece last week. eyesore and wanted them house is listed at $58.5 mil-
Hudson Yards, a $25 billion and more that it was such The short section, called torn down. lion, and Thomas Heath-
development of skyscrap- an exclusive space and so the Spur, straddles the in- Back then, the blocks sur- erwick’s barrel-windowed
ers, shops and a performing lacking in the diversity that tersection of 10th Avenue rounding the High Line in 515 W. 18th St., opening
arts center. New York is known for. To and West 30th Street, and Manhattan’s West Chelsea next year. The Hadid build-
But there’s handwringing me, it’s always been kind of connects the High Line to neighborhood were largely ing is occupying land that
about whether the High a missed opportunity.” Hudson Yards. undeveloped and consid- was once a scrapyard. The
Line is a victim of its own Robert Hammond, who co- It includes a dedicated art ered dangerous by some. Heatherwick lot once was
success. founded the High Line with space called the Plinth, Anthony Annaruma re- home to the Roxy night-
In the beginning, the park Joshua David and serves whose inaugural commis- members driving there in club. A recent visit to the
was remarkable for its abil- as the executive director of sion, a 16-foot-tall (5-me- the mid-1980s to go to a High Line found tourists
ity to lift visitors above the the nonprofit that manages ter-tall) bust of a black fe- nightclub. enjoying the lush greenery
streetscape to a perch with the park in partnership with male figure by artist Simone “The red light district that and bird’s-eye views.
unique vistas over mostly the city, said it deserves Leigh, seems to rebuke the this was?” Annaruma said. The High Line’s success has
low-rise rooftops. It was a neither all the credit nor all surrounding glass towers. “The prostitution? You inspired dozens of efforts
park in the sky. Now, it’s the blame for the ultra-lux- The sculpture, Brick House, would come up 11th Ave- to turn abandoned pieces
nestled in a canyon of tall, ury buildings now blocking is “a very powerful female nue, 10th Avenue, it would of infrastructure into parks,
luxury condominium build- some of its views. presence in a very mascu- take you one hour to get including about a dozen
ings that have sprouted “The High Line becomes a line, vertical landscape,” to that light because they in the United States and
along its sides. Still cool, but lightning rod for love and said Cecilia Alemani, the were all jumping in your Canada that are part of
different, and often choked hate,” he said. “This neigh- High Line’s chief art cura- car: ‘Baby come here.’” the High Line Network, set
with out-of-town visitors. borhood was going to tor. Annaruma is now working up by Hammond in part to
And some critics blame the change. It was a manufac- The High Line was originally at the site of a new condo help other projects navi-
High Line for the neighbor- turing neighborhood. It was built in the 1930s to raise tower called the Jardim go- gate gentrification issues.
hood’s hyper-gentrifica- going to be rezoned.” freight trains above street ing up west of the High Line. Kevin Dow, the executive
tion. “When I first used to The net effect of the park, level. Efforts to preserve the Julie Bauer, who bought an director of Friends of the
Rail Park in Philadelphia,
said leaders of the Rail
Park — whose first section
opened last year — hope
to create opportunities
for development without
alienating longtime resi-
dents or forcing them out.
“What we want to be able
to do is engage deeply
with our current community
in a way that we retain that
cultural fabric while adapt-
In this May 29, 2019 photo, a bronze bust of a Black woman ing to the changing demo-
entitled “Brick House,” by Chicago artist Simone Leigh, is seen in In this March 5, 2019 photo, structures both modern and old graphics that are coming
the High Line park section called “The Spur,” in New York. flank visitors walking on the High Line park in New York. in,” Dow said.q
Associated Press Associated Press