Last night at the IAC building, architects from Diller Scofidio + Renfro held forth on their vision of The High Line. Speaking in front of an 118- foot long video wall which displayed the lush greenery of The High Line to a crowd of about 300 people, Elizabeth Diller said, “The city has been fantastically cooperative. This is the heyday of doing architecture in New York City.”
Scofidio and Diller wowed the audience with their images of The High Line, their renovations at Lincoln Center, and the recently completed Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Unlike Hudson River Park, which is filled with bikers, runners and skaters, Scofidio said that he wanted The High Line to be a “slow park.” Entering the park will be a gradual experience, requiring a lot of steps. Of course, there will be elevators, too.
Diller said that The High Line breaks down notions of nature and culture. It’s an urban infrastructure that’s been abandoned and taken over by nature. And now, it is being reclaimed for public use. They are committed to preserving the diversity of plant life that has moved into the walkway. Scofidio said that when you bring the public up, the landscape will necessarily change. What they will not do, he said, is put in a permanent concrete walkway. Instead, a series of concrete planks will be added (or subtracted) so the plant life can grow and fill in parts of the walkway. They have retained Piet Oudolf, an exponent of New Wave planting who also worked on Battery Park City, to design the greenery. Approximately 50% of the plant life will remain intact. There is talk of adding wetlands and they will keep the woodland thickets. In order to keep the landscape intact in one particular spot, there will even be a walkover. At the 10th Avenue square, they are designing a overlook. Part of the original metal will be removed to create a view into the park from street level.
Robert Hammond, co-founder of Friends of the High Line, who sponsored this event, said that he was pleased to be able to announce that construction was on schedule. He said the first third of the park, from Gansevoort to 20th Street should open in 2008. The next third, from 20th to 30th Streets will be completed by 2009. The final third, is still a question mark. The MTA, he said, is willing to let the developers come back with proposals that both include and exclude The High Line.
Perhaps our architecturally enlightened city government can shine some of their light on the MTA. (Photo: curbed.com)
-Sherry Mazzocchi
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