Deconstructing the High Line

DECONSTRUCTING THE HIGH LINE DECONSTRUCTING THE HIGH LINE Postindustrial Urbanism and the Rise of the Elevated Park Edited by Christoph Lindner and Brian Rosa Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, Camden, and Newark, New Jersey, and London Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Lindner, Christoph, 1971– editor of compilation. | Rosa, Brian, 1982– editor of compilation. Title: Deconstructing the High Line : postindustrial urbanism and the rise of the elevated park / edited by Christoph Lindner and Brian Rosa. Description: New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016032169| ISBN 9780813576466 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780813576459 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780813576473 (e- book : epub) | ISBN 9780813576480 (e- book : web pdf) Subjects: LCSH: High Line (New York, N.Y. : Park) | Urban parks— New York (State)— New York. | Land use— New York (State)— New York. | City planning— New York (State)— New York. | Railroads, Elevated— Remodeling for other use. Classification: LCC F128.65.H54 D43 2016 | DDC 307.1/21609747— dc23 LC record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov/ 2016032169 A British Cataloging- in- Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. This collection copyright © 2017 by Rutgers, The State University Individual chapters copyright © 2017 in the names of their authors All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1 992. www.rutgersuniversitypress.org Manufactured in the United States of America CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables vii High Line Timeline ix Introduction: From Elevated Railway to Urban Park 1 Brian Rosa and Christoph Lindner Part I: Envisioning the High Line 1 Hunt’s Haunts 23 James Corner 2 Community Engagement, Equity, and the High Line 28 Danya Sherman 3 Loving the High Line: Infrastructure, Architecture, and the Politics of Space in the Mediated City 41 Alan Smart Part II: Gentrification and the Neoliberal City 4 Parks for Profit: Public Space and Inequality in New York City 61 Kevin Loughran 5 Park (In)Equity 73 Julian Brash 6 Retro- Walking New York 92 Christoph Lindner vi Contents Part III: Urban Political Ecologies 7 TheGarden on the Machine 109 Tom Baker 8 TheUrban Sustainability Fix and the Rise of the Conservancy Park 125 Phil Birge- Liberman 9 Of Success and Succession: A Queer Urban Ecology of the High Line 141 Darren J. Patrick Part IV: The High Line Effect 10 A High Line for Queens: Celebrating Diversity or Displacing It? 169 Scott Larson 11 Programming Difference on Rotterdam’s Hofbogen 185 Daan Wesselman 12 Public Space and Terrain Vague on São Paulo’s Minhocão: The High Line in Translation 201 Nate Millington Acknowledgments 219 Bibliography 221 Notes on Contributors 245 Index 249 FIGURES AND TABLES Figures I.1 Tourists, cranes, and high- rises under construction, 2015 3 I.2 Section 3 pre- construction, 2011 5 I.3 Keep off the grass: “Lawn closed for restoration,” 2015 13 I.4 Hudson Yards under construction, as seen from the High Line, 2015 19 4.1 A view of the High Line from the sidewalk, 2011 66 4.2 Public housing meets “starchitecture,” 2011 67 4.3 Much of the High Line’s design channels pedestrians through narrow spaces, 2011 69 6.1 Billboard next to the High Line: Joel Sternfeld, Landscape with Path: A Railroad Artifact 97 6.2 View from the High Line: The Whitney Museum of American Art at Gansevoort, 2015 99 6.3 Luxury living at the High Line: Rendering of 520 West 28th Street 100 6.4 Rendering of the Lowline at Delancey Street, 2012 102 6.5 “Pop Down”: Proposal for Mail Rail urban mushroom garden in central London, 2012 103 vii viii Figures and Tables 8.1 Long concrete planks with tapered ends comb into the planting beds 136 9.1 “Protect the Plants, Stay on the Path” 155 9.2 Joel Sternfeld, Ailanthus Trees, 25th Street, May 2000 156 9.3 Joel Sternfeld, Looking South at 27th Street, September 2000 157 10.1 Theproposed QueensWay would convert a section of the abandoned Rockaway Beach Branch into a linear park 171 10.2 Theproposed QueensWay would pass through the residential neighborhood of Forest Hills 175 10.3 Residents in Woodhaven have voiced opposition to the proposed QueensWay 179 10.4 QueensWay proponents frame their proposal as a “community-le d” project 180 11.1 Two vaulted spaces of the Hofbogen 186 11.2 Ornamentation of the Hofplein viaduct 187 11.3 Thenew facades of the Hofbogen 187 11.4 Children’s Playground 200 12.1 TheMinhocão on a slow day 202 12.2 A race on the Minhocão 206 12.3 A carnival bloco practicing on the Minhocão 210 12.4 Artistic interventions on the Minhocão 210 Tables 8.1 Funding the High Line construction 132 8.2 Comparison of NYC park operating costs 133 HIGH LINE TIMELINE 1934 Inauguration of the elevated West Side Line, built to replace a mid- nineteenth- century street- level railway and to separate the railway from surface- level traffic. 1960 As a result of decentralization and the increasing market dominance of trucking over freight railways, Saint John’s Park Terminal is sold by New York Central Railroad, and the southernmost section of the viaduct is dismantled by the city. 1976 TheWest Side Line viaduct is bought by the federal government’s Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail). 1980 Rail service ceases on the West Side Line viaduct. 1983 Conrail begins efforts to divest from the High Line. Congress passes the National Trails System Act, which leads to the conversion of disused railway rights- of- way to recreational “rails- to- trails” projects. Architect Steven Holl proposes to construct housing and public space atop the viaduct. 1989 Chelsea Property Owners, a consortium of landowners, files an application with the Interstate Commerce Commission requesting an adverse abandonment order, which would require Conrail to demolish the viaduct and allow them to develop on land beneath the viaduct. 1991 Rockrose Development Corporation demolishes the southern portion of the viaduct to build 265 housing units, leaving the viaduct in its current form, ending on Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District. ix x High Line Timeline 1993 Promenade Plantée is completed in Paris, a linear park built above a disused viaduct that served as an inspiration for the creation of the High Line. 1999 CSX Transportation acquires Conrail and works with the Regional Planning Association to strategize on the future use of the viaduct. Friends of the High Line (FHL) is founded by Joshua David and Robert Hammond after meeting at a community hearing in Chelsea on the future of the former West Side Line viaduct. The designation of the structure as the “High Line” came from a local nickname for the viaduct dating back to the 1980s. 2001 Photographer Joel Sternfeld completes a visual survey of the landscape atop the High Line, published as a book titled Walking the High Line, which was used to generate support and funding for the FHL. 2002– FHL conducts a study to examine the feasibility of converting 2003 the viaduct into an elevated linear park and opens a design competition for imagining the future of the structure. 2004 As a result of the design competition, FHL and the City of New York select the landscape architecture firm James Corner Field Operations, the architecture and design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and the garden designer Piet Oudolf. City of New York commits $50 million to establish the High Line park. 2005 City of New York assumes ownership of the High Line viaduct from CSX. City approves zoning for the Special West Chelsea District (an area bound by 10th and 11th Avenues from West 30th Street to West 16th Street) to release height restrictions, encourage residential and commercial development, and facilitate the reuse of the High Line. Federal Surface Transportation Board issues a certificate of interim trail use, allowing the city to remove most of the line from the national railway system. High Line Timeline xi 2006 Groundbreaking begins on the first, southernmost section of the park from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street. 2009 Phase 1 completed and opened to the public. 2011 Phase 2, from West 20th Street to West 30th Street in West Chelsea, is completed and opened to the public. CSX Transportation agrees in principle to donate the northernmost section of the viaduct, from 30th to 34th Streets, to the city. Related Companies, owner of the development rights to the West Side Rail Yards, agrees not to tear down the 10th Avenue spur of the elevated railway. 2012 Groundbreaking begins on Hudson Yards, a $20 billion, twenty- eight-a cre mixed- use redevelopment project at the northern tip of the High Line jointly funded by the City of New York, the State of New York, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority, partially over the West Side Rail Yard, to stimulate further development along the Hudson River. 2014 Phase 3 of the High Line, from West 30th Street to Hudson Yards at West 34th Street, is completed and opened to the public. 2015 New home of the Whitney Museum of American Art, designed by Renzo Piano, is constructed at the southern tip of the High Line at Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District.

Load more