High line?
Green areas in New York City is where people go to find a bit of peace…
Two young New Yorkers decided, thirteen years ago, that their
city needed more of that vital green space and, at the same time, saved an important
landmark. This particular park is in an unexpected place, thirty feet above street level...
In 1980 the last freight train ran along the elevated railway line in the Lower
West Side of Manhattan called the High line. Almost 20 years later, in August
1999, a public meeting was held to discuss the future of the High Line. Joshua
David and Robert Hammond, two neighbourhood nobodies, suggested it be saved and
recycled into public green space. To them, it was a thing of cultural
importance. It has since become wildly successful…
Those two men, who just wanted to improve their neighbourhood, imagined that
this rusting structure on the verge of being pulled down could be developed
into a unique park: “The High line is not just a park; it is also a promenade
that gives incredible and new views on New-York City” says Joshua David one of
the co-founders of Friends of the High line. You can wander along its
one mile route taking in views of the Hudson River and Chelsea, look at
pedestrians and cars on 10th Avenue, or choose to stop on one of the
many benches and sunbathe.
The secrets of the success of the High line are
that it slows people down and that it stays part of the city; you can still see
and feel that when you are walking along the park. This is something really
important for New Yorkers, who, even if they sometimes ask for the peace and
quiet of the countryside, are resolutely townsfolk that need the city around
them to “survive”! The High line includes the idea of going somewhere, the idea of the
street, which is the principal NYC public place. It is the perfect marriage of street and park.
The first section of the High line opened in June 2009 and the second in June
2011. It was a frank success for both the architects and New York City. Three years after the first section of
the park opened to the public, it is one of the city’s most popular parks,
drawing millions of visitors and promoting real estate conversion, with, for
example, the transformation around the park of old warehouses into high
standard buildings.
“What really
happened there is, first and foremost, a triumph of historic preservation and
design” says the president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation of New
York.
The High line is just one of the many examples
of historic preservation in New York; another famous example is the Jefferson
Market Library. The Jefferson Market Branch New York Public Library, better
known to New Yorkers as Jefferson Market Courthouse, was originally built as
the Third Judicial District Courthouse. Faced with demolition in 1959, public
outcry led to its reuse as a branch of the New York Public Library.
Another example is the Alexander Hamilton U.S Custom House, originally built by
the Federal Government to house the duty collection operations for the Port of
New York it is now the home of the New York branch of the National Museum of
the American Indians and will, in 2012, be home to the National Archives.
Those examples are just
a tiny part of what New Yorkers are ready to do to keep “alive” their buildings.
According to the New Yorkers some buildings deserve a second life and they will
do everything they can so that New York cultural heritage survives.
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