Friday, December 16, 2022

The NYC High Line, I had to see it with my own eyes

Or maybe that should be, walk it with my own legs? 
If you're a gardener you've no doubt heard of the High Line, but just in case...

"The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. The High Line's design is a collaboration between James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf." (source)

"Since opening in June 2009, the High Line has become an icon of American contemporary landscape architecture. The High Line's success has inspired cities throughout the United States to redevelop obsolete infrastructure as public space. The park became a tourist attraction and spurred real estate development in adjacent neighborhoods, increasing real-estate values and prices along the route. By September 2014, the park had nearly five million visitors annually, and by 2019, it had eight million visitors per year." (source)

The High Line is said to have been inspired by the Coulée verte René-Dumont (Promenade plantée) in Paris, which was completed in 1993. I had the pleasure of walking the Promenade plantée in 2018, and while I would have loved the chance to visit both structures in the spring or summer, that was not to be. It was January when I walked the Paris promenade and the final days of October when we were in NYC

Here's the view of Little Island (which I wrote about on Wednesday) from the High Line. The steel archway is an artifact from the Cunard-White Star building (a British shipping line) that used to operate on the (now gone) historic pier.

I walked the High Line twice during our NYC visit. The first time was with Andrew on a Saturday. It was packed with locals and tourists all taking in the sights.


The views from the High Line were at least half the fun.

You know who I am—a large-scale cast bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty wearing various cartoonish masks—by Paola Pivi. "The masks are stylized portraits of individuals whose personal experiences of freedom are directly connected to the United States" (source)

The mask on the statue in my photo is of Mahnaz Akbari, Mahnaz was among the limited number of Afghan women who were evacuated in August 2021 after the withdrawal of the United States military from Afghanistan.

Parking lot, New York style...

Here's a better view. One layer of cars in a parking lot just isn't going to cut it in the city.




Wow, that building is huge! On a different day we walked by this massive building at ground level. It's the London Terrace Towers (completed in 1930), and it occupies the area bordered by Ninth and Tenth Avenues between West 23rd and West 24th Streets in the heart of Chelsea.
Spying small gardened spaces from the High Line is extra fun...

Here's Andrew in the "Flyover" area, which includes a mini Magnolia macrophylla forest. I would love to see them all in bloom.

Baby big-leaf magnolia.

This is where Andrew and I descended to street level, I had finally had enough of the crowds. Visiting on a Saturday was wonderful for people watching and seeing just how many people wanted to be up on the High Line, but I would need to return another time if I wanted to see the plants.

And your cats! Wait, I guess that's not as much a problem here as it is at home in Portland.

Now I'm picking back up on Tuesday afternoon when I was able to see a little more.

I really wanted to know what was going on down there!

Fallen leaves are prettier when you're not the one responsible for cleaning them up.



There are plants up top!



Pow! That's some gold right there...


Yes, I was thrilled to spot this patch of deflated opuntia (a cold weather coping mechanism). If I couldn't have an agave sighting on the High Line, this was the next best thing.



At the end of the line—located at Hudson Yards—is a ginormous shopping mall and the Vessel; a 16-story "public art centerpiece" that's meant to be climbed, but with a sad story. Evidently it's closed indefinitely as several people have died jumping from from it.

Well, we don't want to end on that note, so how about a shot of the train yard—namesake of Hudson Yards—as seen from the High Line? There are further expansion plans for the High Line, which you can read about here.

Am I glad I saw the High Line, definitely. Was it really all that? Well, no. Maybe it's just because the shine has worn off after so many years? Maybe it's just that the Piet Oudolf style of planting has never been my thing? I did love the activity of it all, the walk is definitely enjoyed by many. I have heard that as the area surrounding the line has built up, the plantings have suffered from unintended shade and that garden maintenance has been a problem. Have you visited? What was your opinion?

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All material © 2009-2022 by Loree L Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

19 comments:

  1. I would definitely go see the Highline. The combination of a nature walk and amazing architecture is hard to beat. It is sad that plant maintenance hasn't kept up, considering how popular this venue it. I like Piet Oudolf's design style and it seems suitable for the space (although not for my own garden).
    If you were bothered by crowds you should be glad to have visited in the off-season: New York is dreadfully crowded in spring and summer (and humid to boot).
    Chavli

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    1. I don't know for sure that maintenance is an issue, just something I was told. Also—I can't remember the time of year it was that I first visited NYC but I know about that off the charts humidity. Yuck.

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  2. I enjoyed your experience seeing the High Line, even though it differed from mine. I saw it in October 2014 and found it transcendent. My post (part 1) if anyone wants to see how it's changed between 2014 and 2022: https://www.penick.net/digging/?p=29553 . I'd love to see it again sometime, although I think I'd be shocked at the crowds too.

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    1. Thanks for linking to your post Pam, and I do hope you get the chance to go back!

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  3. This is probably as close to the High Line as I'll ever get (NYC is low on my list of places to visit) so thank you for the tour!

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    1. You're welcome! I wouldn't have made NYC a priority either, but Andrew had been wanting to visit for a couple of years now.

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  4. How do they get the cars on and off the stacked parking? Is there some type of moving elevator that takes them to/from each level?

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    1. Yes something like that. We stood there for awhile hoping to see action but never did.

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  5. I'd love to see the High Line in person, although the volume of human traffic would probably bother me too. That parking structure was amazing but also daunting. The views of course are great. I'm sure a spring/summer stroll would have offered more plant interest.

    James Corner Field Operations was the architect involved in the construction of Tongvu Park In Santa Monica, which is a site I think I've previously failed to mention as a place you might want to visit on one of your SoCal visits. I toured it in November 2013 and published a post on it but I haven't visited since. I love Santa Monica and lived there for 11 years; however, traffic and parking are even bigger issues now and online sources reference homeless concerns. None of the recent photos online focus on the park's plants, which is weird. They had lots of agaves!

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    1. Thanks for the recommendation, I will check it out!

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  6. In a way I think it is hard to be amazed when the High Line has had so much PR. I haven't been to NYC since before it was built and probably won't get there again. I am a big fan of Piet (and others') Lurie Garden in Chicago. You get the big city buildings but they're not next to you. And the garden has wonderful expanses of plants which I love. Plus it was built on Michigan Ave. — absolute top dollar property. So I always consider it an amazing civic decision based on what the land was worth at the time.

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    1. Oh I would love to visit Chicago and the Lurie Garden...

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  7. I like this post very much as you show so many varied sights and small easily-missed sights that are fascinating, like the barely seen place with the clear roof and giant flowery wall paper.

    Civic and public garden maintenance most always seems to get short -shrift--and it is wise and skilled maintenance that makes a garden!

    Not to say everything must be perfectly groomed at every moment, but that the beauty of the season is on display--disarray is beautiful too, when the plants are properly cared for, when it is appropriate to care for them.

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    1. "disarray is beautiful too"... definitely! Glad you enjoyed the post.

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  8. I visited the High Line several years ago and loved it. It was summer , so it was crowded but not enough to be off-putting. I do enjoy the Oudolf style gardens very much, and in fact the Lurie Garden in Chicago is one of my favorite US public gardens. I'm sorry to hear that there may be maintenance issues; maybe they can't find employees like everyone else.

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    1. Indeed, lack of willing gardeners could very well be part of the issue.

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  9. Catching up on posts and have to say how much I have enjoyed your NYC ones. Visited NYC briefly for my son's band tour and found it to be a very different place than what us westerners are used to but it does offer so many interesting things to visit as a tourist. The Little Islands are intriguing. Have attended a couple of webinars by Rebecca McMakin who was the head gardener for the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The whole concept and how they plant these little island parks is fascinating.

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  10. The combination of architecture and plants is a win win for me. Especially love the reds of warm brick.

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  11. Chiming in here very late to the party. I saw a tiny piece of the High Line earlier this month (October), and loved it. I do love the Oudolf style, especially in autumn, so perfect timing for me. My first visit to NYC alone, so I was overwhelmed, but impressed by how safe I felt among late afternoon weekday crowd up there. I actually appreciated the closeness to the buildings. It evoked the tenacity of nature when it emerges in the cracks in a city sidewalk. Thanks for sharing your trip.

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