The DIRT on Phase 3 of the High Line

I really liked the different perspective in The DIRT's guest posting by photographer Allan Pollok-Morris about Phase 3 of the High Line.Can't wait to visit.

The rest of the High Line

With the grand opening of the final segment of the High Line, the NY Times' Michael Kimmelman suggests that your response to the popular elevated design project will reveal something about you:

But this third phase completes a kind of narrative, which the two earlier phases started, about 21st-century New York as a greener, sleeker metropolis, riven by wealth, with an anxious eye in the rearview mirror. It is a Rorschach test, signifying different things — about urban renewal, industry, gentrification, the environment — to different people. 

Sounds like a field trip...

Olmsted on TV

It is a great time for landscape architecture on TV for those in the NYC area.

Tonight (or tomorrow morning) at 1am, PBS 13 will be re-airing the Susan Sarandon narrated Great Museums episode on the High Line. Later tomorrow (Thursday) morning, PBS 13 is re-airing the 1 hour documentary, Olmsted and America's Urban Parks.

Then, on June 20th PBS everywhere will be airing a new special, Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America, which emphasizes his central role in shaping America and its identity.

Get some popcorn or set the DVR (or both).

Is the High Line New York's Vasali Corridor?

Places and Spaces has written plenty about New York City's newest tourist landmark, the High Line. But a recent trip to the City got me thinking even more about how the new passageway above the city simply recalled another, much older elevated corridor.

In Florence, there is an elevated passageway hidden in plain sight called the Vasali Corridor. Not having been there, I have to experience it vicariously through other people's photos of the art-lined corridor.

Designed by its namesake, Giorgio Vasari, the corridor created a private passageway connecting many of Florence's landmarks: Palazzo Pitti, the Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, and Palazzo Vecchio. This map of the Vasali Corridor shows that it really covers some ground.

Once you know it is there, you can see it plain as day in the picture on your pizza box.

The next High Line?

Could this part of Jersey City be the next High Line?


View Larger Map


View Larger Map

On the map you see how 6th Street only has buildings on one side. The StreetMap view shows there is something more.

This is the Harsimus Stem Embankment in Jersey City and The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is enjoying a recent legal victory that improves the chances of an elevated park emerging through the center of the city. Jersey City is already a cool city, but this could really "elevate" that status.

High Line Part 2

New York has unveiled High Line Part 2.  The NY Daily News writes about the lawn panel and Fox News gives an overview of the High Line's "secrets".    National Geographic just ran a feature on Part 1.

There are already photo galleries of Part 2 online from:
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Garden Design Magazine


And the New York Times has given the High Line its own Topic Page.  Presumably their big splash on Part 2 will appear there when it is ready.

Highrise on the Highline

The decision to redesign the Highline in New York was based, in part, on the thought that it would spark new development in the neighborhoods around the Highline. It turns out that that might be happening, based on this report in the NY Times, as plans move ahead for a highrise by the designer of the Prudential Center in Newark.

Building the High Line

The workers building the High Line have to deal with distractions from falling construction debris to Kid Rock. But, as this video from the NY Times shows, they are determined to make NYC's first mid-air park a reality.