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The high line: new directions In public space
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The high line: new directions In public space
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Content
THE HIGH LINE: NEW DIRECTIONS IN PUBLIC SPACE
by
Sharla Michele Russell
___________________________________________________________
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSKI SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF PUBLIC ART STUDIES
December 2012
Copyright 2012 Sharla Michele Russell
ii
EPIGRAPH
“A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I
must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint.
What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.”
-Henry David Thoreau
“Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for
lovers and friends.”
-Lewis Mumford
iii
DEDICATION
To my mother and father, Karen Walker Russell and Donald
Russell: Love. Fire. Spirit.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my sincere gratitude and
appreciation to my thesis committee: Noura Wedell, Vinayak
Bharne and Dean Rochelle Steiner. Many thanks are due as
well to the faculty and staff of the M.A. Program in Art
and Curatorial Practice in the Public Sphere: Rhea Anastas,
Interim Director and Elizabeth Lovins, Program Coordinator.
A special thank you to former Dean Ruth Weisberg; Academic
Advisor, Antonio Navarro Bartolome; and Dean's Assistant,
Cindy Tsukamoto. And to my family and dear friends, thank
you always, and may the laughter never stop.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Epigraph ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
List of Figures vi
Abstract vii
Introduction 1
Chapter One: The History of Shaping Public Space 6
In New York
Chapter Two: Since When Is Being A Dreamer A Bad 14
Thing? A History Of, And The Process,
Which Created The High Line
Chapter Three: Experiencing The High Line 26
Conclusion 35
Bibliography 39
Appendix: High Line Maps and Images 41
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE 1: Context Map of High Line 41
FIGURE 2: Image “Death Avenue” before the High Line 42
FIGURE 3: Image “Death Avenue” before the High Line 42
FIGURE 4: Image Trains on the High Line 43
FIGURE 5: Image High Line After Trains Stopped 43
FIGURE 6: Image Seating Along High Line 44
FIGURE 7: Public Art Map at High Line 45
FIGURE 8: Special Episodes Map at High Line 46
FIGURE 9: Image 10
th
Avenue Square 47
FIGURE 10: Image 10
th
Avenue Square 47
FIGURE 11: Image Diller – von Furstenberg Sundeck 48
FIGURE 12: Image Diller – von Furstenberg Sundeck 48
FIGURE 13: Image The River Runs Both Ways 49
FIGURE 14: Image Space Available 49
FIGURE 15: Image Viewing Station 50
vii
ABSTRACT
The High-Line is a public space created in 2009 in the
Lower west side neighborhoods of New York City. This
thesis will argue that the High Line provides a new model
for public space, differing from existing models such as
the 19th century natural public park, or the 1950s private
amusement park. Incorporating and building on its history,
the High Line model reflects the transformation of New York
City from an industrial to a post-industrial economy. The
site addresses issues of limited space in cities by its
reuse of an abandoned industrial infrastructure, and as a
model of public space it must contend with the dwindling of
public funds available for the creation of parks. The High
Line bridges neighborhoods where ethic and cultural
diversity had been diminished. And, emblematic of the
shift to a service based economy in which the culture
industry figures predominantly, the High Line provides a
central and novel position for art as a means of framing
the city.
1
INTRODUCTION
The city of New York is now engaging in an ambitious
experiment with public space. Created in 2009, the High
Line is an elevated rail line re-envisioned and transformed
into a public park and destination place. Traversing 1.5
miles through the Lower west side neighborhoods of West
Chelsea, the Meatpacking District, and Hell's
Kitchen/Clinton, (see Figure 1) the antiquated former rail
line, elevates the user above and away from mass transit
systems and transportation networks, allowing for a unique
perspective to survey the terrain. Bolstered by impressive
views of the Hudson River, 210 species of perennials,
grasses, shrubs, and trees, public art installations and
special episodes, visitors to the High Line can wander
through the site without purpose; or take on the role of
active participant in search of adventure or aesthetic
engagement at the intersection of the cultural and natural
landscapes. This thesis will argue that the High Line
provides a new model for public space, differing from
existing models such as the 19th century natural public
park, or the 1950s private amusement park. Incorporating
and building on a history that is conscious of itself, the
High Line model reflects the transformation of New York
2
City from an industrial to a post-industrial economy. The
site addresses issues of limited space in cities by its
reuse of an abandoned industrial infrastructure, and as a
model of public space it must contend with the dwindling of
public funds available for the creation of parks. The High
Line bridges neighborhoods where ethic and cultural
diversity had been diminished. And, emblematic of the
shift to a service based economy in which the culture
industry figures predominantly, the High Line provides a
central and novel position for art as a means of framing
the city.
The happenings in public spaces and the fervent pace of
city streets intrigues and inspires me. As an undergrad
living in San Francisco, the dynamics of the built
environment, unlike in my native, car centric Los Angeles
were palpable. My daily existence of walking and observing
in public spaces allowed for spontaneous interactions with
other pedestrians, and a kind of dialogue with the movement
of the streets. My experiences were heightened as I
participated in these same kinetic rituals in New York,
London and Paris, channeling Baudelaire’s Flaneur – “the
stroller, the pedestrian, who finds delight and pleasure in
3
ambling contentedly and unhurriedly through the city.”
1
Much is revealed touring the streets and boulevards of a
city. And it was here that I began to question the
histories of places fallen into decay, the reuse of
architecturally significant yet underutilized structures,
and the presence of artists always seemingly in their
midst.
Public spaces are places for publics to congregate, for
political organizing, places of leisure and commerce, but
also create the possibility to implement forms of social
control. More recently, public spaces have been used as
venues to engage in viewing art. New York City has created
preeminent public spaces. From Central Park to Times
Square, and the Central Library at 42
nd
Street, the City has
undertaken projects of great scale and significance. But
despite its successes, public space in New York, as in the
rest of the country, struggled to function and exist due to
shifting social attitudes and transformations in economic
structures. In the wake of de-industrializing processes,
New York City went through a resulting downturn beginning
1
Visual Culture and the Contemporary City, “Emergence of the Flaneur in
Modernity”, Visual Culture https://visualculture.wordpress.com/
(accessed March 10, 2012).
4
in the late twentieth century, which blighted parts of the
City’s landscape with abandoned spaces, and derelict
structures. The High Line was such a structure that mired
New York City’s skyline for decades, but now it joins the
City’s other celebrated public spaces integrating the
community, and shaping its identity.
Who uses the space and how? Is it inclusive of race,
gender and class represented within the community? Is its
funding mechanism viable; and how will it manage its
operations in light of dwindling tax revenues, and current
political debates about the role of government providing
for the social welfare of its citizens. Does the High Line
embody and achieve the ideals of what proponents of public
space have historically set out to accomplish? Or does it
also propose new ideas for public space. In particular,
the inclusion of art in a new way in this space makes it a
place to frame one's experience of the city. Artists are
invited to creatively engage with the unique architecture
and design of the High Line and to foster a productive
dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban
5
landscape.
2
Is the High Line a new model for public space?
2
The High Line, “High Line Art” Friends of the High Line,
http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art (accessed April 27, 2012).
6
CHAPTER ONE
THE HISTORY OF SHAPING PUBLIC SPACE IN NEW YORK
To understand the ideas behind the High Line, it is
important to look to a larger history of public space in
America, and in New York specifically. I will examine
three models, the “natural” public park, a democratic
space, and the theme park, privatized; and the reuse of
fallow space by the community. Public spaces such as civic
plazas and large green open spaces, are often created by
government structures, and are considered democratic in
that they are accessible and open to all publics. Acting
at the local level, sometimes without government
intervention or consent, community grass-roots organizers
have created public spaces such as community gardens in
response to an unmet condition in their neighborhood.
Private spaces restrict members of a particular group due
to their policies, design or management.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, many American
cities established large, landscaped central parks. The
movement that brought about parks such as Lake Park in
Milwaukee, and Shawnee Park in Louisville, Kentucky swept
7
through North America beginning in the 1840s. According to
environmental psychologist, Setha Low, the movement’s
philosophical basis lay in romanticism and the belief that
nature and natural scenery had the power to uplift and
restore the human spirit.
3
The Romantics embraced with awe
the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque
qualities as transformational. It was argued that these
new landscaped parks could counteract the havoc and
dreariness of many living through the industrial era.
Landscape designer, Frederick Law Olmsted is popularly
credited with creating the field of landscape architecture,
and he was emerging, “as the pivotal figure in America’s
public park movement.”
4
His public parklands, ponds, and
waterways were a consequence of his travels to England in
the 1850s where he explored and wrote about their many
public gardens. Opening in 1853, Olmstead noted that his
one great purpose for designing New York’s Central Park was
to, “supply to the hundreds of thousands of tired workers a
specimen of God’s handiwork”
5
reflecting his belief to the
3
Setha Low, Dana Taplin, Suzanne Scheld, Rethinking Urban Parks: Public
Space and Cultural Diversity, (Texas: University of Texas Press, 2005),
21.
4
Joel Kotkin, The City: A Global History, (New York: Modern Library,
2006), 93.
5
Ibid.
8
relationship between the city and the spaces it produces to
provide a meaningful existence. Designed primarily for
passive pursuits, public parks were thought of as a means
to maintain social harmony. By creating an environment of
seamless coherence between polite middle-class behavior and
a graceful, tastefully furnished landscape, the expectation
was working class users would be compelled to emulate their
social betters.
6
Lacking this outcome, many parks,
including Central Park resorted to widespread supervision,
and developed rules of use that restrained crowds and
restricted the use of lawns – effectively curtailing
unsuitable behavior.
7
The other model that has
significantly structured the imaginary of public space is
Disneyland. It reflects transformations towards a car-
centric culture, a rejection of urban space for the
suburban, and transforms from the naturalized parks of
Olmstead to a privatized space for leisure, popular culture
and escape. In his book Urban Green: Innovative Parks for
Resurgent Cities, author Peter Harnik asserts:
From the moment Disneyland opened it became the new
6
Setha Low, Dana Taplin, Suzanne Scheld, Rethinking Urban Parks: Public
Space and Cultural Diversity, 22.
7
Setha Low, Dana Taplin, Suzanne Scheld, Rethinking Urban Parks: Public
Space and Cultural Diversity, 23.
9
paradigm of a park experience—corporate, programmed,
extravagant, rural, flawless and electrifying. It was
not a coincidence that after Disneyland opened, the
old urban parks systems—unprogrammed, democratic,
unpredictable, and free—began grinding down
relentlessly everywhere from Franklin Park in Boston
to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. There was
something completely new in the air and it was
exciting: the park experience could be sanitized!
Social classes could be segregated! Suburban
backyards would meet most of the old city park needs,
and Disneyland—or the concept of Disneyland would pick
up the rest.
8
Opening in 1955, Main Street at Disneyland imitated the
happenings of city streets where the public could linger
and connect with others, but in a controlled and private
space. The changes Robert Moses brought about in New York
are illustrative of this transformation in the idea of
public space; and one could conclude that through his
policies and projects the dominance of the private
automobile in New York City out weighed the infinite
possibilities of public space. Economic transformations
including the hemorrhaging of industrial jobs and the
regional shifts of the workforce across America, led to a
flight to the suburbs and the abandonment of the city
center to poor minorities. The inclination whereby
affluent whites fled urban neighborhoods while the minority
population remained, diminished tax revenues in many
8
Peter Harnik, Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities,
(Washington DC: Island Press, 2010), 6.
10
cities, and resulted in a lack of attention to key sites
such as schools, housing, and public spaces.
9
Disproportionally, public parks and cultural forums saw the
most drastic reductions.
10
Without middle class political
support, the growth of open space systems was halted and
they began to go into decline; implying a reduced role of
the public realm and the idea of free public space, in
contrast with the private yards at home becoming the center
for social activities and recreation. By the 1970s Central
Park became a symbol of New York City's decline. Graffiti
and garbage kept both citizens and tourists from visiting
the masterpiece of landscape architecture; and the grand
space fell into dramatic disarray. “Time had hastened the
deterioration of its infrastructure and architecture, and
New York’s fiscal and social malaise contributed to severe
managerial neglect,”
11
said its conservancy president.
Other parts of the city suffered as well, and vacant and
abandoned lots—both public land and newly public land
9
Cindi Katz, “Power, Space, and Terror: Social Reproduction and the
Public Environment,” in The Politics of Public Space, ed. Setha Low and
Neil Smith (New York: Routledge, 2006), 111.
10
Ibid.
11
Editorial, The New York Post, November 3, 2007.
11
acquired by foreclosure—were endemic.
12
On the heels of a
globalizing economy, and neighborhood abandonment as a
consequence of suburbanization, gave way to an abundance of
underutilized spaces, infrastructural obsolescence, and
abandoned buildings, that if they weren't already torn
down, dotted the landscape, especially in Manhattan
neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side, Hell's Kitchen,
and East Harlem.
13
Community members, as well as artists
began to fill in the blanks where local governments were
addressing issues of other concerns. The process of
artists transforming underutilized and neglected sites was
documented by Julie Alt in her book Alternative Art, New
York, 1965-1985: A Cultural Politics. Land that sat fallow
amidst widespread urban blight ushered in the Community
Garden movement of the 1970s, which began in earnest on the
Lower East Side with the Green Guerillas.
14
A nonprofit
environmental group dedicated to preserving urban gardens,
the Green Guerillas, started in 1973 by lobbing "seed
bombs" packed with fertilizer, seed, and water over fences
12
City of New York Parks and Recreation, “The Community Garden
Movement: Green Guerrillas Gain Ground,” New York City
http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/community-gardens/movement
(accessed March 13, 2012).
13
Ibid.
14
Ibid.
12
around vacant lots where access was otherwise limited in an
attempt to beautify some of these eyesores with greenery,
and also to offer relief from the difficult living
conditions in the neighborhood.
15
This move not only
beautified formerly vacant lots, but soon became a
grassroots program that fostered neighborhood pride and
participation.
16
When the movement of goods by train was largely replaced by
trucks, another obsolete artifact was added to the
expanding landscape of derelict structures in New York
City. The High Line embodied the impression of disrepair
and neglect in the City. Writing in the book Terra
Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Strategies, urban critics
Bowman and Pagano argue:
A place may be considered derelict to the extent that
the symbols of disinvestment, vacancy and degradation
dominate. Where disrepair, litter, emptiness,
violation, and other signs of diminished habitat
prevail, a derelict zone exists in mind if not
reality…it symbolizes failure.
17
Furthermore, the authors continue, “vacant land is often
conceived of as a problem, a negative situation that
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
17
Ann Bowman and Michael Pagano, Terra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban
Strategies, (Washington D.C. Georgetown University Press, 2004), 2.
13
requires corrections. Yet beyond this bleak landscape,
alternative conceptions of vacant land are possible.”
18
As was the intervention of the community garden, it is
within this latter possibility that the High Line found its
reason for future existence.
18
Ibid.
14
CHAPTER TWO
SINCE WHEN IS BEING A DREAMER A BAD THING? A HISTORY OF,
AND THE PROCESS, WHICH CREATED THE HIGH LINE
The High Line officially opened to trains in 1934 and was
designed to mitigate the many accidents occurring between
freight trains and pedestrians at street level along the
bustling industrial waterfront, and Tenth and Eleventh
Avenues on Manhattan’s West Side. Significant congestion
strangled commercial activities, and the continued
conflicts between trains and street traffic resulted in
many pedestrian casualties. Five hundred residents
eventually erupted in protest over “Death Avenue”
19
(see
Figure 2-3) where the trains ran at grade. Hailed as, “one
of the greatest public improvements in the history of New
York,”
20
the elevated rail line connected to factories and
warehouses, and allowed trains to roll directly inside
buildings without disturbing traffic and movement on the
streets. The High Line was fully operational and
delivering freight from 1934-1960 (see Figure 4). Its
19
Joshua David and Robert Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New
York City’s Park in the Sky, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2011), viii.
20
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s
Park in the Sky, ix.
15
circumstances changed in 1960 however, due to the increase
in freight truck traffic on the new interstate highway
system. Service was halted on the southernmost section of
the High Line in 1960, and the City eventually demolished
the section. In 1976, the High Line became the property of
the federal government under a program that consolidated
the remains of six rail carriers in the Northeast and
Midwest called Consolidated Rail Corporation, or Conrail.
The High Line was decommissioned for use in 1980, and the
last train that ran down its elevated track reportedly
carried three boxcars of frozen turkeys.
Overgrown and infested with weeds, wild plants and trees,
(see Figure 5) an essential piece of New York’s industrial
past was an eyesore targeted for destruction. A hot topic
for decades, the High Line captured the imagination of
locals who wanted to repurpose the site as a community
serving amenity, while antagonizing area property owners
who wanted to demolish the structure and replace it with
housing, commercial and retail uses. Standing in the way
of both constituencies (primarily the proponents of
development) was the National Trails System Act, passed in
1983 that allowed out-of-use rail lines to be “railbanked,”
16
meaning, used as pedestrian or bike trails while being held
for future transportation needs. Since there were no
immediate plans for the High Line, the Act effectively held
the site to the status quo. Further, a railbanked corridor
is not considered abandoned, and it can be sold, leased, or
donated to a trail manager without the property rights
reverting to underlying landowners. The structure
languished in its natural state until 1989 when a group of
Chelsea Property Owners (CPO) filed an application that
would require Conrail to involuntarily abandon and demolish
the High Line. Reaching a zenith in 1999, Conrail
transferred the High Line to CSX Transportation, and they
became the new owners of the structure. The same year, CSX
conducted a Regional Plan Association study and recommended
a focus on light rail and greenway use for the High Line.
A CSX representative also declared that year that, “the
company would be amenable to reuse proposals for the High
Line.”
21
Finally, here was a possible light at the end of
the tunnel. An examination into the transformation of the
High Line uncovers urban theorist Manuel Castells’
statement, “if you want a better urban life you invent it,
21
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s
Park in the Sky, xi.
17
then fight for it.”
22
But, whose urban existence would
prevail?
The debate surrounding the future of the High Line pitted
the merits of historic preservation and serving a public
good versus the desire for private investment. Acting
essentially as preservationists, Friends of the High Line
(FHL) was founded in 1999 by two neighborhood residents,
Joshua David and Robert Hammond, advocating for the reuse
of the structure when it was under threat of demolition.
FHL soon sought protection of the site under the rail
banking program to transform the derelict piece of New York
infrastructure and to “create a new way to experience their
city”
23
by providing a public open space in a neighborhood
where green space was scarce. CPO (who had significant
support from the Rudolph Giuliani administration) was on
the opposite end of the spectrum – anticipating the
opportunity to demolish the rusting structure. CPO members
owned land directly beneath the High Line, and they
asserted that the High Line blighted the neighborhood, and
22
Manuel Castells, “Cities in the Information Age” (lecture, University
of California Berkeley Library, Berkeley, CA, October 28, 2004).
23
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s
Park in the Sky, Inside cover.
18
its poor maintenance created hazardous conditions.
24
Most
owners expected the value of their land to increase if the
structure was torn down, yet they conceded that if the High
Line were converted to a public promenade, nearby property
values would rise.
25
However, the group insisted on
demolition as the most expedient means to achieving their
goals.
26
FHL held more than two-dozen community input
sessions to encourage neighborhood residents, business and
property owners, and all other interested members of the
public to share their ideas on how the site should be
developed. A few years earlier, a similar elevated rail
structure in Paris had been converted into a public park.
Located in eastern Paris near the Place de la Bastille, the
Promenade Plantée was a highly successful linear park. The
existence of the Promenade Plantée was an international
example to draw inspiration from, and boosted the
credibility of the FHL crusade by providing a serious
precedent. “Walking up the stairs and stepping into that
park was amazing,”
27
recalled Joshua David after his visit
24
Joshua David, Reclaiming the High Line, (New York: Design Trust for
Public Space, 2011), 14.
25
Ibid.
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid.
19
to the Promenade Plantée. It was then that David realized,
“people had done this, they had built stairs, and now
people were going up them and using the elevated park. It
had become part of the neighborhood. So it was not a
totally insane idea. It happened in Paris, and it could
happen in New York City.”
28
The response to the High Line
among the community was still very mixed however, and the
CPO had not changed their position of demolishing the site.
This indifference was captured at a City Council High Line
hearing where an area CPO commented, “if you were actually
able to make a park on the High Line, it would be great for
property values. But this will never happen; it is just
too far fetched. These people are dreamers. It’s a pipe
dream.”
29
In response, City Planning Commissioner Amanda
Burden testified, “since when is being a dreamer a bad
thing? This is a city built on dreams. We should all be
following dreams like this one.”
30
Both sides stuck to
their positions, but a bigger threat would test the resolve
of the City, and the future of all parties involved.
28
Ibid.
29
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s
Park in the Sky, 32.
30
Ibid.
20
In the wake of the September 11
th
terrorist attacks, FHL had
to, “cobble together a position on why the High Line was
still relevant.”
31
The group declared the High Line as a
future-oriented project, and expressed with consideration,
This was not the time to be tearing things down. The
demolition of the High Line was going to be very
destructive, the ground was going to shake, it was
going to be dusty and noisy. People were not up for
anything that disruptive. But greater than that the
High Line was about New York moving forward.
32
Furthermore, as asserted by Bowman and Pagano, there were
many good reasons for maintaining the structure,
The abandonment of a structure, whether residential or
commercial, disrupts a neighborhood. If other
abandonment follows, the neighborhood’s character
changes commensurately. The area may survive in its
new form and functions, but the built environment no
longer represents its past. The past exists only in
memory.
33
Though a decision on the fate of the High Line was many
months away, demolishing the structure, in addition to the
loss of the World Trade Center, would have eliminated
significant portions of New York City’s history from the
landscape. Demolition sweeps away the history of a place,
its social history as well as its architectural past. The
cultural landscape, and often the natural landscape, is
31
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s
Park in the Sky, 39.
32
Ibid.
33
Bowman and Pagano, Terra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Strategies,
100.
21
obscured.
34
In her book The Power of Place; Urban
Landscapes as Public History, urban theorist Dolores Hayden
affirms ordinary urban landscapes can nurture citizens’
public memory, and encompass shared time in the form of
shared territory.
35
She argues for preserving traces of the
ordinary landscape to provide a truer picture of the past.
36
September 11
th
“increased interest in urban planning and
design – average people got engaged in things that
previously only architects and planners had cared about”
37
–
and through the High Line they drew from the city’s past in
order to present a vision for the city’s future. At City
Hall, FHL continued to advocate for the structure in terms
of its aesthetic merits. But as the idea of the High Line
gained further traction, the economic aspects of the
project surfaced as a fundamental issue. Presenting a very
strong case, FHL demonstrated that building the High Line
would benefit the City and property owners from an economic
standpoint, as well as serve as a significant community
34
Ibid.
35
Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public
History, (The MIT Press 1997), 9.
36
Bowman and Pagano, Terra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Strategies,
100.
37
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s
Park in the Sky, 40.
22
asset.
38
At City Hall, the new mayoral administration of Michael
Bloomberg was in favor of the adaptive reuse of the High
Line as a public park. Bloomberg appointed Amanda Burden,
to Chair of the City Planning Commission, and she, along
with Deputy Mayor, Dan Doctoroff set about a newly rezoned
Special West Chelsea District (SWCD) that would feature the
High Line as its centerpiece. As established in the City’s
resolution, the SWCD was designed to promote and protect
public health, safety, general welfare and amenity.
39
Its
specific purposes among others included:
(a) to encourage and guide the development of West
Chelsea as a dynamic mixed use neighborhood;
(b) to encourage the development of residential uses
along appropriate avenues and streets;
(c) to encourage and support the growth of arts-related
uses in West Chelsea;
(d) to facilitate the restoration and reuse of the High
Line elevated rail line as an accessible, public
38
FHL commissioned an economic feasibility study driven by an important
question: “Over a twenty-year period, will the High Line generate more
direct revenues to the City from property taxes than it costs to
build?” The estimated cost to build the High Line was $65 million, but
over a twenty-year period, the project would create approximately $140
million in incremental tax revenues for the City of New York, According
to Robert Hammond of FHL, “this changed the way we thought of the
project. It was larger than just a single park. We started actively
trying to promote the idea of a High Line neighborhood, and High Line
District.”
39
New York City Department of Planning, “West Chelsea Special
District,” New York City,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/westchelsea/west_chelsea_final.pdf
(accessed April 27, 2012).
23
open space through special height and setback
regulations, High Line improvement bonuses and the
transfer of development rights from the High Line
Transfer Corridor;
(e) to ensure that the form and use of new buildings
relates to and enhances neighborhood character and
the High Line open space
40
The key to the success of the District would be the
transfer of development rights. According to FHL Co-
founder, Robert Hammond,
Our opponents owned most of the unused development
rights. This framework would enable them to monetize
their unused rights, and by doing so we hoped their
opposition would go away. Amanda also felt strongly
that the growing art gallery district was one of the
most interesting things about the neighborhood. The
galleries had been priced out of SoHo and had moved to
Chelsea. If the rezoning created too much opportunity
for residential development, the resulting economic
pressure on property owners to develop housing could
force the galleries out of West Chelsea, too. To
manage this, a manufacturing designation was kept for
the middle of the blocks, preventing residential
development in the areas where most of the galleries
were located. Controls were also proposed to shape
new construction next to the High Line to preserve
sun, air, and sight lines. These restrictions
wouldn’t apply in the Meatpacking District.
41
A design ideas competition planned by FHL followed. Its
purpose was to provoke and “free people up to think of the
High Line in different ways.”
42
FHL received 720 entries
40
Ibid.
41
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s
Park in the Sky, 64.
42
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s Park
in the Sky, 53.
24
from 36 countries. Around this time, opposition from a few
members of the CPO began to wane, as they began to envision
the High Line as a catalyst, reinforcing Bowman and
Pagano’s theory that, ”far from being an unrelenting
negative condition, vacant land may come to symbolize
opportunity; it may represent a resource that localities
want to maximize.”
43
The creation of parks and public open
space can require vast areas of land. And yet because the
High Line was built two stories above ground, no precious
land (in a city where vacant land is a premium) would need
to be taken for the development. This was an important
factor in establishing the reuse of the space.
44
Ultimately
Mayor Bloomberg was able to rescind the outstanding
demolition order on the High Line in 2002, and the High
Line opened to the public in June of 2009. In the midst of
changes brought on by rapid industrialization, and the
fluidity of the city, preserving the High Line maintains
what architecture and design critic Randall Mason calls a
“memory infrastructure” that is “anchored by buildings,
parks, and memorials representing noble, celebratory
43
Bowman and Pagano, Terra Incognita: Vacant Land and Urban Strategies,
3.
44
David and Hammond, High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s
Park in the Sky, 53.
25
narratives of past achievement.”
45
Throughout the city
Mason argues, “these memory sites built a sense of the past
into the changeful urban environment – permanent landmarks
to suggest stability and bringing balance to a modernizing
city.”
46
45
Randall Mason, The Once and Future New York: A Historic Preservation
and the Modern City, (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2009),
43.
46
Ibid.
26
CHAPTER THREE
EXPERIENCING THE HIGH LINE
Traditionally, parks have been conceived as a restorative
or therapeutic counterpoint to city congestion and the
tension of the urban lifestyle.
47
From the designers of the
High Line’s perspective, the space is to be a meditative
experience — a break from hustling urban life.
48
A recent
New York Times article affirms this, “the High Line and
Hudson River Park are essential parts of my mental health
as a resident of Manhattan”
49
stated Michael Davis. Writing
in his book The Image of the City, urban planner Kevin
Lynch argues, “nothing is experienced by itself, but always
in relation to its surroundings, the sequence of events
leading up to it, the memory of past experiences.”
50
Ascending the staircase at the 30
th
street access point of
the High Line, an impressionistic landscape is created
through the use of sand and earth-toned concrete seating
47
Alexander Garvin, The American City: What Works, What Doesn’t (New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), 32.
48
Adam Sternbergh, “The High Line: It Brings Good Things to Life,” New
Magazine.com, April 29, 2007, under “News and Features,”
http://nymag.com/news/features/31273/ (accessed July 3, 2011).
49
Ibid.
50
Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City, (Massachusetts: The MIT Press,
1960), 1.
27
(see Figure 6) and walkways, wildflowers, grasses and trees
against the striking silhouette of the New York City
skyline. According to its website, the High Line's
planting design is inspired by the self-seeded landscape
that grew during the 25 years after trains stopped running
on its elevated rail tracks.
51
Gilles Clément, a French
gardener, has theorized that abandoned areas, what he calls
the Third Landscape
52
, have more diversity of species, and
thus represent a reservoir of potentiality. According to
Clément, “compared to the territories submitted to the
control and exploitation by man, the Third Landscape
designates the sum of the space left over by man
to landscape evolution - to nature alone.”
53
Left behind
urban or rural sites, transitional spaces, and neglected
land including swamps, moors and railroad embankments
similar to that of the High Line, condition the future of
living things, modifying the interpretation of territory
and enhancing areas usually looked upon as negligible.
54
51
The High Line, “High Line Planting” Friends of the High Line,
http://www.thehighline.org/design/planting (accessed April 27, 2012).
52
Gilles Clement, “The Third Landscape” Gilles Clement,
http://www.gillesclement.com/cat-tierspaysage-tit-le-Tiers-Paysage
(accessed April 27, 2012).
53
Ibid.
54
Ibid.
28
Special episodes and public art at the High Line unveil
themselves, serving as focal points and gathering places
(see Figure 7-8), while also providing meaning and a method
for connecting the user to the site. Two planned episodes
for discovery and social interaction at the High Line are
the 10
th
Avenue Square (see Figure 9-10), and the Diller –
von Furstenberg Sundeck (see Figure 11-12). Located
between 14th and 15th Streets, the Sundeck is one of the
High Line’s most popular gathering places. Large-scale
outdoor furniture is situated among grasses, perennials,
and shrubs, highlighting unobstructed views of the Hudson
River. The 10th Avenue Square is a kind of amphitheater
with a series of large windows, showcasing the City and its
parade of cars, cabs, trucks and people, dashing through
the streets directly below. These places to congregate at
the High Line, act as public forums or agoras, allowing for
the exchange of ideas, and the exposure to diverse
cultures. The notion of framing the city as an aesthetic
space is also introduced at these particular sites, and is
further explored through the public art offerings at the
High Line.
As a space for viewing art, the High Line, according to
29
Cecilia Alemani, Curator and Director of High Line Art, is,
A unique place for exhibiting and experiencing art: it
isn’t a traditional exhibition space like the white
walls of a gallery or a museum, nor is it a usual
sculpture park with large lawns. Artists are invited
to create a dialogue with the exceptional context of
the High Line, with its architecture, nature, and
audience.
55
The many access points to the High Line also allow the
visitor to take in its installations in a somewhat random
manner, unlike the clearly delineated pathway one finds in
a museum or gallery, enabling a unique personal experience
upon each visit. Most of the art exhibited at the High
Line is concerned with the notion of site, whether it is
in-situ
56
or site-specific
57
, referencing the structure's
history as an elevated rail line that brought raw materials
and manufactured goods to the Lower West Side of Manhattan.
As a curatorial model, Alemani looks toward Artangel in
London and Public Art Fund and Creative Time in New York,
and “is interested in inviting artists who can take on the
challenge of speaking to a wide audience.”
58
55
Cecilia Alemani, email message to Sharla Russell, March 16, 2012.
56
Situated in the original, natural, or existing place or position.
57
Refers to a work of art designed specifically for a particular
location and that has an interrelationship with the location. If
removed from the location it would lose all or a substantial part of
its meaning.
58
Cecilia Alemani, email message to Sharla Russell, March 16, 2012.
30
I will be looking at three works featured on the High Line
that incorporate notions of invisibility, and framing the
city as an aesthetic space: The River that Flows Both Ways,
Space Available, and Viewing Station.
The River That Flows Both Ways by artist Spencer Finch (see
Figure 13) documents a 700-minute (11 hours, 40 minutes)
exploration of the Hudson River in a single day. From a
tugboat drifting on Manhattan's west side and beyond the
High Line, Finch photographed the river's surface once
every minute.
59
Time is translated into a grid, reading
from left to right and top to bottom, capturing the
diverse, reflective and translucent conditions of the
water's surface.
60
The color of each pane of glass is based
on a single pixel point in each photograph and arranged
chronologically in the tunnel of the High Line’s existing
steel mullions.
61
The work, similar to that of the river,
is experienced differently depending on light levels and
59
The High Line, “High Line Art” Friends of the High Line,
http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art/spencer-finch(accessed
April 27, 2012).
60
Ibid.
61
Ibid.
31
the atmospheric qualities of the site.
62
“Like the rail
line that existed on the High Line, the Hudson River was,
and still is, an active route for the transportation of
goods into Manhattan.”
63
The River That Flows Both Ways is
a translation of Muhheakantuck, the Native American name
for the Hudson referring to the rivers natural flow in two
directions.
64
In choosing to use the Native American name,
a presence that has been erased on the east coast to a
large extent, the memory of the Native American inhabiting
the land is brought back. The significance of the waterway
to indigenous peoples before the arrival of Henry Hudson
and the conquest of America, reinscribes political and
economic considerations within this installation, making
visible forgotten or voluntarily obscured histories.
Furthermore, pointing to an older history also calls back
to the more recent industrial past of the High Line as it
activates a historical reflection in the spectator.
“Indeed, both the river and the High Line are linked in
their geography, their function, and their imprints on the
62
Ibid.
63
Ibid.
64
Ibid.
32
industrial legacy of the city.”
65
Space Available by artist Kim Beck (see Figure 14) presents
three sculptures resembling the skeletal framework hidden
behind advertising billboards.
66
“These blank forms emulate
the abounding indicators of the economic recession, such as
empty storefronts and "For Sale" signs.”
67
Beck's
sculptures have the illusion of depth when viewed from the
front, but as visitors to the High Line or those viewing
from the street move past the works, the side views reveal
that they are completely flat, cut from perspective
drawings and built like theater props.
68
The series of
three sculptures are exhibited on the roofs of buildings in
proximity to the High Line. Integrating seamlessly into
the environment of the High Line neighborhood, the
sculptures echo existing billboards and buildings in
partial states of construction. The existence of the three
works reinforces their visibility and invites the public to
65
Ibid.
66
The High Line, “High Line Art” Friends of the High Line,
http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art/beck (accessed April 27,
2012).
67
Ibid.
68
Ibid.
33
rethink the logic of what they are seeing.
Viewing Station by artist Richard Galpin (See Figure 15).
“Richard Galpin is best known for creating altered
photographs of cityscapes, altered to the point of total
abstraction — a technique and result recalling early 20th-
century movements such as Constructivism, Cubism, and
Futurism.”
69
Viewing Station functions in a manner similar
to his lacerated photographs.
70
Visitors to the High Line
can look through a viewing apparatus lined up with a metal
screen from which geometric shapes have been cut.
71
In
combination, the two devices give visitors an altered,
abstracted view from the High Line.
72
The High Line
provides its visitors with a new vista of Manhattan.
Similarly, Galpin's artwork offers a novel reconsideration
of the surroundings. Viewing Station requires interaction
from the public, changing the way the public interacts with
artwork and with its site.
The High-Line reflects the transformations in New York
69
The High Line, “High Line Art” Friends of the High Line,
http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art/richard-galpin (accessed
April 27, 2012).
70
Ibid.
71
Ibid.
72
Ibid.
34
as it has moved from an industrial to a post-
industrial space. Increasingly, the fundamental
economic impetus of New York City’s means of
production has shifted from industrial based
production to a service based economy, in which the
culture industry figures predominantly.
73
Many art works on the High Line point to this shift. They
do not ideologically align themselves necessarily to any
specific political position, but build meanings and bring
these sociological and economic changes to the fore. The
mandate or emphasis on in situ art on the High Line offers
new framings of the city and of public space. Many of the
pieces indeed blend “seamlessly” into the architecture.
This may be read as an attempt to provide the public with
means to reframe their ways of viewing the city, to rethink
their habitual ways of inhabiting that space.
73
For an analysis of this shift, see The New Spirit of Capitalism by
Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapelle.
35
CONCLUSION
A dramatic deterioration and deracination of the public
spaces of reproduction has taken place over the last two
decades in the United States.
74
As the landscape of
production shifted from old industrial centers in cities
such as New York, similar patterns of decline were
witnessed in tax revenues for schools, libraries, parks,
and social programs. Along with diverted taxes, a sense of
public responsibility for a collective social life was also
incrementally jettisoned. The High Line provides a new
direction in public space, which reflects recent socio-
political and economic transformations occurring in many
cities across the Country. The site allows for different
elements of society to mix; it connects neighborhoods, and
people of various ethic and cultural backgrounds. As well,
the High Line preserves its history through the reuse of
the existing infrastructure; and its art works address the
past, and frame the city, thus allowing people to think
about their inscription in that space. Yet, according to
social scholar Cindi Katz, the practice of social
reproduction, by which she defines as the material social
74
Cindi Katz, Power, Space, and Terror: Social Reproduction and the
Public Environment, 111.
36
practices that sustain and reproduce a society — its
people, its production systems, and its cultural forms and
practices, has increasingly been relegated to the private
realm.
75
She argues, “public investment in public outdoor
space is deferred to the vanishing point, social
reproduction is hounded into private space or secured in
increasingly privatized “public” spaces of everyday life.”
76
An example of this trend notes Katz is the Central Park
Conservancy;
77
a model that FHL adopted. FHL is a private
non-profit, which provides more than ninety percent of the
High Line’s annual operating budget and is responsible for
maintenance of the park, pursuant to a license agreement
with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.
78
What are the larger implications? The privately operated
public space is becoming ubiquitous as cities have grappled
with funding cuts, and an electorate seemingly at odds with
the interrelations of the public sphere. As this “new
direction” increasingly becomes accepted policy at sites
75
Ibid.
76
Ibid.
77
Cindi Katz, Power, Space, and Terror: Social Reproduction and the
Public Environment, 113.
78
The High Line, “About” Friends of the High Line,
http://www.thehighline.org/about/friends-of-the-high-line(accessed
April 27, 2012).
37
such as the High Line, the transfer and the production of a
public good or service to a private entity leads to larger
issues of public accessibility, appropriation of space, and
the possible censoring of curatorial practices. The
constitution of a democratic space is in jeopardy when the
High Line receives a majority of its funding from private
individuals and corporations. Moreover, what are the
outcomes when private sector philanthropy is reduced in a
time of austerity as witnessed today?
The artworks at the High Line and the High Line itself
provide the public of New York City with a means of
reflection upon its own condition. The Tenth Avenue Square
(see Figure 10) might be seen as providing a metaphor for
privatization. It frames the public that is congregating
there as if in a video, television screen, or photograph,
viewed by an audience passing below in private, individual
vehicles. Extending its aesthetic function to the public
on the street, the High Line this time frames not the city
outside of it, but its own users. Showing the people in
its agora as actors on screens perhaps reveals what is
perceived as a “declining quality and quantum of public
38
life and space.”
79
79 Meredith Drake Reitan, “Public Space: Theory, Policy, and Design”
(lecture, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, January
10, 2012).
39
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bowman, Ann and Pagano, Michael. Terra Incognita: Vacant
Land and Urban Strategies. Washington DC: Georgetown
University Press, 2004.
City of New York Parks and Recreation, “The Community
Garden Movement: Green Guerrillas Gain Ground,” New
York City,
http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/community-
gardens/movement (accessed March 13, 2012).
David, Joshua and Hammond, Robert. High Line: The Inside
Story of New York’s Park in the Sky. New York: Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Fitch, James Marston. Historic Preservation: Curatorial
Management of the Built World. Virginia: University
Press of Virginia, 1992.
Garvin, Alexander. The American City: What Works, What
Doesn’t. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.
Gilles Clement, “The Third Landscape” Gilles Clement,
http://www.gillesclement.com/cat-tierspaysage-tit-le
TiersPaysage (accessed April 27, 2012).
Harnik, Peter. Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent
Cities. Washington DC: Island Press, 2010.
Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban Landscape as
Public History. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1995.
Katz, Cindi “Power, Space, and Terror: Social Reproduction
and the Public Environment,” in The Politics of Public
Space, edited by Setha Low and Neil
Smith 105-121. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Kotin, Joel. The City: A Global History, New York: Modern
Library, 2006.
Low, Setha and Taplin, Dana. Rethinking Urban Parks: Public
Space and Cultural Diversity. Texas: University of Texas
Press, 2005.
40
Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Massachusetts: The MIT
Press, 1960.
Mason, Randall. The Once and Future New York: Historic
Preservation and the Modern City. Minnesota:
University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
New York City Department of Planning, “West Chelsea Special
District,” New York City,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/westchelsea/west_chels
ea_final.pdf (accessed April 27, 2012).
Sternbergh, Adam “The High Line: It Brings Good Things to
Life,” New Magazine.com, April 29, 2007, under “News
and Features,” http://nymag.com/news/features/31273/
(accessed July 3, 2011).
The High Line, “High Line Art” Friends of the High Line,
http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art (accessed
April 27, 2012).
Visual Culture and the Contemporary City, “Emergence of the
Flaneur in Modernity”, Visual Culture,
https://visualculture.wordpress.com (accessed March
10, 2012).
41
APPENDIX
HIGH LINE MAPS AND IMAGES
Figure 1. Context map of the High Line. Photo Source:
http://www.destinationchelsea.org/assets/images/maps/h
ighline_map.jpg
42
Figure 2. Archival photograph of the “Death Avenue”.
Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
Figure 3. Archival photograph of a “West Side Cowboy”
hired to alert pedestrains of oncoming trains on
“Death Avenue”. Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
43
Figure 4. Archival photograph of the High Line in use.
Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
Figure 5. The High Line in its natural state after
trains stopped running. Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
44
Figure 6. Seating along the High Line. Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
45
Figure 7. Map of Public Art and Special Episodes along the
High Line. Photo Source:
http://www.thehighline.org/about/maps
46
Figure 8. Map of Special Episodes along the High Line.
Photo Source: http://www.thehighline.org/about/maps
47
Figure 9. Tenth Avenue Square. Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
Figure 10. View of Tenth Avenue Square from the
street. Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
48
Figure 11. View of the Hudson River from the Diller
Von Furstenberg Sundeck. Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
Figure 12. Visitors to the High Line enjoying the
Sundeck. Photo Source:
http://www.beautyofnyc.org/HighLine/index.html
49
Figure 13. Spencer Finch, The River that Flows Both
Ways. Photo Source:
http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art
Figure 14. Kim Beck, Space Available. Photo Source:
http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art
50
Figure 15. Richard Galpin, Viewing Station. Photo
Source: http://www.thehighline.org/about/public-art
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
The High-Line is a public space created in 2009 in the Lower west side neighborhoods of New York City. This thesis will argue that the High Line provides a new model for public space, differing from existing models such as the 19th century natural public park, or the 1950s private amusement park. Incorporating and building on its history,the High Line model reflects the transformation of New York City from an industrial to a post-industrial economy. The site addresses issues of limited space in cities by its reuse of an abandoned industrial infrastructure, and as a model of public space it must contend with the dwindling of public funds available for the creation of parks. The High Line bridges neighborhoods where ethic and cultural diversity had been diminished. And, emblematic of the shift to a service based economy in which the culture industry figures predominantly, the High Line provides a central and novel position for art as a means of framing the city.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Russell, Sharla Michele
(author)
Core Title
The high line: new directions In public space
School
Dual Degree
Degree
Master of Public Art Studies
Degree Program
Public Art Studies / Planning
Publication Date
08/02/2012
Defense Date
12/01/2012
Publisher
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Wedell, Noura (
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