Greenwich St Between West 12th St and Gansevoort St

Narrow, with an industrial feeling, this block is rather devoid of  any interesting features or buildings. Eventually opening up to a large, pleasant square before morphing into 9th Avenue, this stretch of Greenwich is also a rare "north/south" street which actually runs north and south (compared to most Manhattan streets which run Northeast).

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't terribly familiar with this part of town before first visiting last year to check out the High Line. I remember thinking at the time: "Gansevoort...how the hell do you even pronounce that?" (I still have a tough time). Strewn with cobblestones and interesting features, the area is a patchwork of old buildings and new logos. The intersecting streets just about guarantee that, regardless of the direction you go, you're bound to find something interesting.

The High Line

Last week The High Line, a previously abandoned elevated train line that has been in development as a greenway for many years, opened its first segment to the general public. To say the High Line is "nice" would be like saying New York City is a "village". From the moment you walk up the stairs at Gansevoort St (currently the only consistent entrance as the other stairways are generally exit-only) to when you exit, the amount of care, time and detail put into the project is very evident.

At no point during the pathway, does anything feel repetitive, or contrived. The landscape and scenes are constantly changing. The design team took full advantage of the unique qualities of the views and topography of the structure to create really great public spaces. Every segment is different and created to best suit its location. In the same way Central Park was made to have "designed" vistas and views, the High Line – at least as it is now – has perfect composition with it's surroundings.

The use of different materials – concrete, metal, wood – and textures, and plant life create for a wonderfully varied experience. There's a strange, and brilliant atmosphere created under some of the buildings that leap over the 70 year old tracks. Which, speaking of tracks: they're still there. Much of the new development incorporates much of the original structure (or at least, facsimiles), which again shows brilliant adaptation.

Supposedly, the second part of the development will continue northward until 30th St (10 blocks north of its current terminus) – despite the fact that the tracks actually turn west and then north again going all the way up to 34th. That final section of the track is still part of the national rail system and is owned by CSX railroad (Though I don't think it's in use, at all).

I have two pages of photos that you can see here: Page 1, Page 2

13th St Between Hudson St and 8th Ave

Cutting through the area as other streets intersect with it, this stretch of 13th St has only a small percentage of the shops found just a block or two away. Generally quiet and filled with plenty of interesting buildings, the center of this block has an interesting intersection where 13th St, Gansevoort and W4th all meet. For The latter two, this is where they begin (W4th really seems to take on a life of it's own as it meanders south and east), so they don't cut through.

Because of all these streets, it's a pretty airy, wide-open area.  The intersection that you're left with on the 8th ave side is a bit of a dead end as 13th wraps around a triangular plot of land with the help of Horatio and Greenwich avenue.  Good luck crossing.

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14th St Between 10th Ave and 9th Ave

I think sometime, maybe 20 of 30 years ago, a group of high-end stores and designers must have gotten together and said the following:

"Hey you cheaper places...yeah we're talkin' to you Forever 21, Circuit City (RIP), Virgin (RIP), Staples, Lucille Roberts, and especially you Taco Bell...you can have the middle of 14th St. Frankly we're just to good to be anywhere remotely accessible. So you guys stay there, and we're going to create this little safe-haven on the far west side.  If anyone asks for us, just tell them to walk west forever.  If they fall into the river, they've gone too far...but that's where we'll be."

So amongst the cobblestones and rustic buildings you have boutique after boutique (most of which I've ever heard of...which should give you some idea of my Gap-infused lack of fashion sense) surrounded by more well-known brands such as Apple and Hugo Boss. Even though it's a prime shopping district, it really just struck me as another tourist destination...like SoHo. With so many big (and obscure) names packed to close together, it's almost as-if the area is designed to be an area for out-of-towners to visit, gawk at, and take pictures around. I could be wrong...but that's how it felt to me.

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17th St Between 9th Ave and 10th Ave

With the highline looming in the distance, there are two distinct styles of apartments on this block: Older project-style housing, and new glass-curtain condos. It's interesting to see side-by-side since both are products of urban redevelopment plans of their time (well, kinda-sorta). The big plan back when the older buildings were erected was to combine many blocks into singular superblocks and provided massive, bland apartment buildings with low rent. Now-days it's all about sleek glass and metal..."modern" style. But since practically everything new is following the same template, the end up being just as bland as the old superblock buildings.

The big mystery on this street was how a lone White Castle box made it's way either from midtown, or Queens.

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10th Ave Between 17th St and 15th St

I was really excited to finally get myself over to the west side to see what all this Highline hoopla was about. Sure, I've walked by the area many times but besides seeing the abandoned elevated structure from a few blocks away, I had never paid much attention – which is insane, because this sort of stuff is completely up my alley.  I mean, an abandoned RAIL line (I'm a Subway nut in my free time) just sitting there for years, only to be taken over and repurposed as a park (see Curbed's coverage). How could I not be enamored?

As I turned the corner at 17th street, I was thrilled to see actual construction happening.  It was quite the flurry of activity; with debris falling into dumpsters, and men scaling the structure above. From down below, the whole thing looks great. I can't vouch for how everything appeared prior to all this rehab, but the paint seemed fresh, and the structure sound. I can't wait until it's all complete.

Of course, while there's more to this stretch of 10th ave than the highline, it's certainly dominated by it. It gives an interesting taste as to what Manhattan was like when elevated lines roamed the avenues - creating a bizarre, shadowy world...almost like the multi-level city scape in The Fifth Element.

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