MSLK Has a High Time Touring the High Line

Sheri and I finally got a chance to view the High Line, the latest large-scale project from renowned architects Diller, Scofidio, and Renfro. If you haven’t heard about the High Line, it is NYC’s newest public park, although the story runs much deeper than just that. Originally constructed in the 1930s to lift dangerous freight trains off Manhattan’s streets, the High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated, steel structure originally designed to carry freight trains. According to the High Line’s website, it currently runs from Gansevoort Street, in the Meatpacking District, through the West Chelsea gallery neighborhood, ending at 34th Street, next to the Jacob Javits Convention Center. The last train ran on it in 1980. We went with members of Spark and arranged for a private tour led by our good friend, the insanely smart and talented Ben Mickus, an architect at DSR (who also was MSLK’s project manager for our studio’s renovation, and a prolific furniture designer). While Ben did not work specifically on the High Line, he arrived armed with more facts and figures than you ever could have hoped for. Click below to see my photos, although they’re no substitute for the real thing. A view of the High Line from street level… Ben leads us on the righteous path of good design… If we got lost, he’s pretty easy to spot: just look for the tallest person around…. From the entrance on 20th street: Note the concrete walkway which integrates the preexisting steel structure, old rail lines, new vegetation, and twists up to form structures such as benches… Signs everywhere reminding you to “KEEP ON THE PATH” began to remind me of the Ray Bradbury story “A Sound of Thunder“. Ben mentioned that unlike other DSR projects, this was an internal mantra developed as a way of preventing the whole thing from being over-designed. The vegetation was crucial to the design of the park. It really blended seamlessly with the architecture… new and old. I loved this view looking out west onto the Hudson. You can see the new Frank Gehry building on the left. We loved the design of the chaise lounge which gives a subtle nod to the High Line’s past as a railway: After the tour we snuck up to the top of the Standard Hotel for an amazing view: That’s me with my nose buried in the camera… Nifty use of light… Sheri poses near my other love, the fantastic new Standard hotel… The view of the Standard as you pass under it on the High Line… View up 10th Avenue… Dipping down as the High Line passes over the roadway… An amazing public space to say the least…