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Green High Line

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

EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT: CITY PLANS TO ENFORCE LAW

There’s an article in the NYT (David Dunlap, 1/6/07) claiming that the city is now going to enforce the law banning advertisements on sidewalk sheds. Although this sounds like good news, it makes you wonder what took them so long. I don’t know how long the law has been on the books, decades probably; it’s scarcely new. (The scofflaws in the article, implausibly, claim not to have known of the law.) Contrast this with the swift sword of justice the city wields against graffiti art and those who practice it. What’s the difference, really, between these two crimes? And why are these building owners being given ten days to take down the ads? That’s ten days of profit at taxpayers’ expense.

And that’s the real issue, profit. $2,500 dollars a month is the maximum fine that can be levied against building owners for illegal advertising, and they stand to make tens of thousands per month on these ads ($40,000-$50,000, according to an 11/29/06 New York Press article by Lindsay Beyerstein). The fines don’t match the potential profits. And the city doesn’t necessarily give them the maximum fine either, and people have to complain repeatedly before they’ll do anything. (Call 311 to lodge a complaint.) And the strategy of the building owners is just to ignore the fines and hope the matter blows over. (What seems to be the case is that, if they don’t pay, the city won’t press the matter; they won’t fine them every month, in other words, but only once.) At the end of the article the author mentions that the city is considering going after ads on scaffolding as well. Silly me, I thought all along they must have been talking about the scaffolding ads as well. These are a much bigger problem, as a walk around the Madison Square Park area will tell you. These gigantic ads are more visible since they are elevated, and hence much more of an eyesore. So why not go after them? The law against them already exists, so what’s the delay? And what about all those gigantic ads that are going up on the sides of buildings? These are not even mentioned in the article, though they are no less illegal than the ads on sidewalk sheds and scaffolding. I guess the city will get around to enforcing the law against these abominations one of these days, after it cracks down on the drinking of beer out of paper sacks—and Kazoo playing on the subway. What’s the hold up, I wonder? Why limit the enforcement to sidewalk sheds? Will cops or bureaucrats become confused? Why not just crack down on all illegal advertising? A case in point, one that I’ve looked into, is the huge “Jag” ad on the side of the old McBurney Y building on 23^rd St. between 7^th and 8^th Avenues. The building owner, Mitchell Marks, has been fined $800 (at least twice) by the Department of Buildings for erecting a sign without a permit. He seems to have paid the fine once, back in 2004, and then been fined $800 again. The last time I checked the DOB database, he still owes the second $800, he still doesn’t have a permit, and the sign is still up. Why doesn’t the city at least fine him the maximum, and keep fining him every month until he takes the sign down? And if the Buildings department can paint over ads on sidewalk sheds, why not this ad as well? The outdoor advertising company Van Wagner is mentioned in the article as being in favor of the new enforcement measures. It should be noted, however, that Van Wagner has a bigger stake in the issue than it lets on, since building owners are putting the signs up themselves now, as the fines against them are much less than the fines against advertising companies. Fines against advertising companies can be up to $25,000 a month, which is still low, considering the potential profits, but at least in the ballpark of an amount that could be effective. We need to call on our city officials to close this loophole in the law: if building owners are going into the advertising business, then they should be subject to the same laws and the same fines as advertising companies. -- Ed Hamilton

DOG DAYS AT THE DOG RUN: ANIMALS IN A CROWDED CITY

Here’s an article about a lady who wants dogs banned from the Penn South complex. Usually, I would say, hey, get over it lady, the dogs won’t hurt you, but the situation is complicated by a couple of factors. For one thing, the lady seems to have a serious phobia of dogs, and for another the policy at Penn South—though it’s apparently ignored--is not to allow any animals at all in the building. So she seems to have a valid complaint.
Here at the Chelsea Hotel certain people seem to have it in for cats, which I find even stranger, but apparently some people think the cuddly little balls of fur are going to attack them and scratch their eyeballs out. Or maybe it’s that cats seem evil, the way they sit there and stare at you.
To my way of thinking, the main problem with animals in New York is there’s just no room for them. The big dogs get in your way on the street (not to mention the cruelty of keeping a Great Dane in a studio apartment!), and the little dogs are even worse, as they trip you up with their leashes and get under foot. Nobody ever seems to bother having small dogs trained to heel, preferring instead to jerk them along roughly by their throats. Really, this is not even a problem with the animals so much as with the pet owners themselves, who really seem, in a lot of cases, not to give a damn whether their animals get in your way or not. (And while I’m on the subject, what about those parents with the double wide strollers who launch their children at your ankles like weapons of mass destruction. And the tourists who don't know to walk in the streets.)
Another thing that bothers me are the dog runs—not the fact that they have them (a good idea), but that no one ever seems to clean them. The one in Washington Square Park smells worse than a charnel house in Calcutta, and it’s fairly typical, rendering the surrounding area of the park unusable. Perhaps dog owners should be charged a small admissions fee that could be used to pay for regular cleaning. It’s a good thing that dog owners are required to pick up the poo that their animals leave behind on the street, but what about the urine? Perhaps they should be required to carry sponges to sop up their pets’ liquid waste. They could ring them out into the sewer without too much trouble. (Relax, I’m kidding. Half-way, anyway.)
What are your pet peeves regarding pets? (Or children, or tourists or really, whatever.) Write in and get them off your chest. Ed Hamilton

How to Walk in Chelsea

With the influx of art viewers, suburban weekend thrill seekers, and good old fashioned tourists, it's nice to remember the single most important rule for walking in New York City:

Don’t make any sudden movements.

Such is the reminder from Uncle Mark (Mark Hurst, of the design firm Creative Good) in Uncle Mark's 2007 Gift Guide (PDF), a handy little guide to help you out this holiday season.

I used to think Stay to the Right was the single most important rule, but after spending some time in Penn Station on Thanksgiving I realize the sudden movements are much, much worse. Here's the rest of Mark's Rules for Walking in New York City

Walking in New York is like driving on a highway. There are rules, and there are safety risks if people don’t follow them. Even if you don’t live in New York City, you can apply walking rules to wherever you live and walk. Here is the most important walking rule: Don’t make sudden changes in course. Don’t suddenly stop or change your speed. Don’t change directions suddenly for no reason, and don’t make a surprise about-face. Just like driving on the highway: don’t act unpredictably. If you have to walk (or drive) slowly, at least do it predictably, so that people around you can travel safely. There are other rules (stay to the right when turning a corner, don’t stop at the end of the escalator, etc.), but those will wait for another time. In the meantime, The New York Times wrote a story on their own walking rules in July 2002.

Say Bye Bye to The Allerton SRO

Kenneth reports that the Allerton has been sold to become condos. I have to agree with Kenneth that the Allerton SRO won't be missed...

The Allerton, owned by Carol Turner, who managed the building until recently, has long been notorious as a source of neighborhood violence and the site of at least one unsolved homicide in the past five years. Hotel employees have told tenants that two adjacent tenements at 306 and 308 W. 22nd St., also owned by Turner, have been sold to different new owners. Colin Casey, an aide to State Senator Tom Duane, reminded The Buzz that the city Department of Homeless Services has had a contract with the Allerton to provide temporary accommodations for families. But the department began moving families out of the hotel when it discovered contract violations, and all those tenants will be relocated by the end of October, Casey said.

Ding, Dong, The Ads are Dead

The most-hated tree-killing ads on the scaffolding on 23rd St are gone, even though the scaffolding is still up. I don't know the details, but I'm happy to consider that a victory for all of you who sent complaints to the city, the ad agency, and the advertiser -- good work!

West 20th St [9/10] Named a 'Best Block' by TONY

TONY's article on 10 Best City Blocks includes one of ours...

Few streets offer such respite from Manhattan’s frenetic pace as this part of 20th Street (and its neighbors immediately to the north and south). The southern side is flanked by a pristine collection of Greek Revival row houses, while the north side is home to the General Theological Seminary, occupying an entire city block. The seminary’s 19th-century architecture comes with all the trimmings, including ornate wrought-iron fencing, lush overhanging trees and a colossal bell tower that transforms this one-block strip into a provincial European village. “It’s wonderful to hear the church bell toll,” notes Kathryn Tucker, who lives in a townhouse she says was once occupied by bombshell stage actress Anita Morris. “I wake to birds chirping and kids playing.” Bonus: +3 points. Steeped in history, this location puts you right in the thick of things, including the Chelsea gallery district, yet retains a feeling of being removed.

The Story Behind The Story of Chelsea Market: Preserve Small Business

Everyone knows about Nabisco, Oreos, the Highline, yada yada. But you probably didn't know Irwin Cohen's intention to preserve small stores in Manhattan...

And we have to run counter to what everyone else is doing. I was able to convince my investors that just making a lot of money from retailing was not the function of a great, old building of historic significance in New York City. There was something more that the people had to have. So my daughter and I, working together, set some standards.

We said first, every one of our tenants has to be a family owned business, at least half of the businesses have to be female owned, the owner of each business and its executive offices have to be located in Chelsea Market, and the tenants have to be both wholesalers and retailers. That is because when the economy in the city was good, their wholesale business selling to restaurants would be good. But when business slowed down, as it did after 9/11, the tenant could stay in business because their retail operation would cater to the people who were not going out to restaurants.

It was a bit crazy, but it was a social experiment. You have to have a social conscience. But it worked out very, very well.

Goldberger Gives Gehry's IAC a Thumbs Up

Goldberger in the New Yorker cuts down Gehry's work at Atlantic Yards but likes our little IAC building...

The façade, unusually for Gehry, is made of a single material: instead of a jumble of clashing forms, the glass is all you see, covering everything like a blanket. By Gehry’s standards, this is serene, but behind the placid exterior are some daring technical maneuvers, including a number of concrete structural columns set at angles. During construction, the Georgetown Company, Diller’s partner in the development, got calls from people who wondered if it knew that the building was going up crooked.

OK, fess up, who was dorky enough to call about the columns?

Googleplex II Comes to Chelsea

Google just moved from its temporary New York space in Times Square to a new 311,000 sq ft home in the Port Authority building across from Chelsea Market. A gaming room and free cafes keep Googlers in the office to work on products like Froogle and Dodgeball.

The Voice provides some techie details and analysis...

The old Port Authority headquarters sits atop one of the main fiber optic arteries in New York City—the Hudson Street–Ninth Avenue "fiber highway." The venerable behemoth is already one of the country's most important "carrier hotels"—loosely speaking, the physical connection points of the world's telecommunications networks and the World Wide Web. As a result, Google will "have access to as much bandwidth as possible and as much variety of bandwidth as possible," says Dana Spiegel, a technology consultant and executive director of NYC Wireless.

...Google is up to something.

In 2005, the company spent some $838 million on facilities and hardware. Along with massive purchases of unused "dark fiber"—the underground fiber optic cable left dormant since the dotcom crash—the company has invested in a series of giant data and networking centers. These data centers are home to an estimated 450,000 individual servers, grouped in clusters, or "server farms." With its vast open floors and technological amenities, 111 Eighth Avenue appears to be an ideal location for a massive Google data center.

"It turns out that one of the biggest global peering facilities is in New York City at 111 Eighth Avenue," St. Arnaud says, referring to the physical spots where tech firms hook up with one another. By positioning server farms in key locations like 111 Eighth Avenue, industry experts believe, Google is quietly, but systematically, building the most advanced computer network in history.