29th St Between 10th Ave and 11th Ave

With the northern stretches of the High Line meandering around the neighborhood, these blocks seem to be void of life. Even the high-end galleries that call this block home sit behind understated brick walls and sterile signs. The industrialness of the street takes over. I understand that galleries need to be purposefully neutral, but I find amusement in the fact that a storage facility can bring more character to the outside of a street than an art house.

To the east you can see the tall tips of midtown buildings, while to the west you can see the inevitable approach of the Hudson River. Overall, there's a bit of a lost, no-man-land feeling to the block. That isn't to say it's without its charms, but the stark contrast of style can be rather unnerving.

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

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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