Highline Update: Now with Cool Benches

Wow-- things are really changing fast up on the Highline. Since we last visited a couple of weeks ago, new benches have been installed, and holes seem to have been cut for new stairwells leading down to the street. The entire platform bed south of 30th Street has been cleared of brush and coated with a new layer of concrete, giving the rail-bed an eerie surface-of-the-moon look. The buildings along the line have also grown-- especially the new Standard Hotel near 12th Street.

Full slideshow, after the jump.

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By Jake Dobkin in Arts and Events on October 22, 2007 4:44 PM

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zantony

Apologies for the double post. Comments ate my tag. Oh well.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zantony/sets/906477/

zantony

SP - It is sad in a way, but the fact that you can get arrested going up there means only daring/ablebodied/status-legal/record-free/young-ish people can experience it, when it is really a treasure the entire world should be able to enjoy.

Exactly. I too have mixed feelings about it. I was fortunate enough to have explored the High Line prior to construction starting. Part of me still wants it to remain a hidden gem. But ultimately I know that it's far better to turn it in to something that everyone can enjoy rather than just the young and able-bodied, as you say.

I'm starting to get really excited about the finished product.

zantony

SP - It is sad in a way, but the fact that you can get arrested going up there means only daring/ablebodied/status-legal/record-free/young-ish people can experience it, when it is really a treasure the entire world should be able to enjoy.

Exactly. I too have mixed feelings about it. I was fortunate enough to have explored the High Line prior to construction starting. Part of me still wants it to remain a hidden gem. But ultimately I know that it's far better to turn it in to something that everyone can enjoy rather than just the young and able-bodied, as you say.

I'm starting to get really excited about the finished product.

wickershee

For those under the impression that the High Line is going to be "no different than the sidewalk below," I urge you to check out the following:

http://www.thehighline.org/design/prelim_design/index.htm

It's going to be quite spectacular, and although I'm sure the finished product will change somewhat from the prelim drawings I think that Diller, Scofidio & Renfro did a bang-up job.

Can't wait until it's finished.

pik

why did they have to cover it in cement? it was better wild. now it's no different than the sidewalk below. fooey.

JMH

Crap. I waited too long.

Will there be draconian anti-kicking-skateboarders-down-to-the-street measures?

Spirit of 76

[5] Now you're being ridiculous. What makes you think this aging structure, which saw no maintenance for decades, would be able to hold up subway trains anymore? No way in hell people around the High Line would allow a new El to be built in their neighborhood anyway. And where would you build all the stations? Don't even mention how to connect it to the rest of the subway system. It takes a lot of space to transition from an elevated train to a subway tunnel, space you're not going to find in Manhattan. It was either tear it down or make it a park.

Think2wice

It should've just been repurposed as a subway line. What a waste of infrastructure.

lower manhattan

I don't see how it will capture stormwater the way the weedy meadow has. Also, what are the plans for the billboards?

Kevin Bracken

SP - It is sad in a way, but the fact that you can get arrested going up there means only daring/ablebodied/status-legal/record-free/young-ish people can experience it, when it is really a treasure the entire world should be able to enjoy.

I am glad they aren't trying to impose draconian anti-skateboarding measures, and I also wonder if you will be able to just kind of slide off that bench if you polished the concrete.