The Air's Better Up Here

A free Tuesday found me at High Line park this week. I entered at 14th, in the heart of the Meatpacking District. The last time I was in that area was August 2008, fresh from backpacking and studying abroad, freshly two months behind on my thesis research. It's hard to believe that was only a year ago.

I found out about the High Line only in May, from a Cool Hunting podcast. I weaved through the construction on the cobblestone street and took a glass elevator up to the old elevated tracks. Once up there, I got a vague hint of the L in Philly but oh what an improvement!!
The park was designed to integrate with the existing tracks. Why waste a perfectly good view? The plants are all ones that were originally native to the area.  Back when New York City was known as Manhatta.  Thanks, Bowery Boys.

What I love love loved! about the park was the materials, especially the flooring. Concrete with a fairly large aggregate gave it an industrial feel, but it was poured to create slats, that not only echoed the linear quality of the park, but mimicked hardwood planks. Then, wonder of wonders, they curve up and mesh with wood an steel to become benches. (might I just say reminicent of my pool deck-becomes-jungle-canopy idea that I had in London?), it was both captivating and lovely to see the change in function and material. 

And I just about died at the beauty of the stair materials- aged metal, the turquoise-painted original structure (harking back to the original Gansevoort neighborhood, where facades are historically protected), steel, and lots of glass. Being a young designer, one of the things I focus on is trying to identify and nail down my aesthetic, and I realized I respond well to simple, true materials.. that is, not a lot of fuss and finishes.



I was also able to see my thesis building- the flagship store, design headquarters, and penthouse of Diane von Furstenberg- from the top. And straddling the entire width of the park like a giant concrete transformer is the new Standard Hotel, which last summer was still in construction phase.  [Left: August 2008.  I guess you can't see from the photo but not all the glazing on the other side was installed at the time.  Right: November 2009]