Sociological Changes
High Line
High Line Official plan for Upper Level
Total Surface Area : 296,000 square feet Total Acreage : 6.7 Acres Total Length : 1.45 miles without Post Office spur 1.52 miles with Post Office spur - Benefits of preservation and reuse outweigh the benefits of demolition
columns : 475 Buildings traveled Through : 2 Buildings Traveled Over : 13 Buildings sidings : 9 City Blocks Crossed : 22 Publicly Owned Lots Traversed : 2 Privately Owned Lots Traversed : 31 Total street Crossing : 25 Maximum Width : 88 feet Minimum Width : 30 feet Rail Easement : 20 feet above the track Load Capacity : 4 fully loaded freight trains Heght : 0 feet to 29 feet above grade Materials : Steel Frame, reinforced Concrete Deck,. Gravel Ballast, Metal Handrails
- This study determined that transportation systems involving freight or passenger trains, subway trains, light-rail, or motorized, rubber-wheeled vehicles do not currently constitute the most beneficial reuse scenario for the High Line. Light rail might be benefical to the community at a future date, and a transit system using rubber-tired vehicleswith electric motors offers many of light-rail’s potential future benefits at a lower cost, but there are not currently enough destinations along the line to merit the investment in either system. Given the potential for density increases along the corridor, designs for the High Line’s reuse should consider that light-rail or rubber -wheeled transit may be desirable.
- Design for reuse should focus on pedestrians rather than rail, light rail, or bicyclists. - Commercial potential exists in spaces alongside the High Line, and limited commercial activity offers potential benefits to the High Line, but the High Line must not become a primarily commercial enterprise. - Reuse as public open space offers the greatest number of benefits to the largest constituency.
1. Population increased
2. Temporal Staying
3. Keep Lower Price Leasing
Demolition Part
Transit Reuse
- Conceiving of the High Line as a linear mall, with a publicly accessible transportation corridor at the center, granked by a series of retail uses along its length, might appeal to economic development interests and provide a revenue stream to support the publoc space, but it would compromise many of the line’s most appealing features its contemplative quality, its ability to convey its history of transportation use, and its sense of a place apart from the city as we commonly experience it. It would be unappealing to the community, which values open-space that is not over-commercialized.
4. Diverse Unit Demand
- Open space reuse is consistent whth rail-banking. the most viable and mos cost-effective plan for acquiring the easement. open space reuse opens up the possibility of numerous related initiatives that could enhance the far West Side as it grows in upcoming decades. It would complement any of the redevelopemnt proposals at the 30th street rail yards. It would create the opportunity to organize growth on the far West Side around public open space and sustainable transportation. It would encourage arts-related uses, reinforcing the neighborhoods’ reputation as a cultureal hub.
Open Space
Commercial Reuse
5. Program change
Analysis of Chealsae & High Line Land use
Building Volums
Public transportation
High Line Planting Concept
Ground Level of Green Space
Access Location
Project Site
30th Street Curve / Wildflower Fileds Cut-out
30th Street
1
28th Street
C
E
SECTION 2
26th Street 25th Street
1
23th Street
28th Street
26th Street 25th Street 24th Street
Lawn / Seating Steps Meadow
24th Street
29th Street
Woodland Flyover
29th Street
22th Street
Chelsea Historic District
Thicket
22th Street
23th Street
21th Street
21th Street 20th Street
20th Street Grassland
18th Street
SECTION 1
17th Street 16th Street
L 1&2 Family Residential
12th Street
1
2
3
Mixed Use Open Space & outer recreation
A
C
E
Green Space
Commercial Institutions Industrial
Vacant Space
Parking
Buildings Traveled Through
Transportation / Utilities
17th Street 16th Street 15th Street
Primary Access Location
Vacant Lots
Gansevoort Street
Gansevoort Market Historic District
14th Street 13th Street
Secondary Access Location 12th Street
Historic Area
Plaza / Overlook
13th Street
Multi-family Residential
18th Street
Woodland
15th Street
14th Street
19th Street
Sundeck / Preserve Plaza / Overlook
19th Street
Gansevoort Street
History of High Line
1
2
In 1847, the City of New York authorized street-level railroad tracks down Manhattan’s West Side. For safety, the railroads hired men the "West Side Cowboys" – to ride horses and accidents occurred between freight trains known as "Death Avenue". Train passing underneath the Bell Laboratories Building, seen from Washington Street in 1936.
After years of public debate about the hazard, in 1929 the city and the state of New York and the New York Central Railroad agreed on the West Side Improvement Project, which included the High Line. The 13-mile (21 km) project eliminated 105 street-level railroad crossings and added 32 acres (13 ha) to Riverside Park. The High Line opened to trains in 1934. It originally ran from 34th Street to St. John's Park Terminal, at Spring Street. It was designed to go through the center of blocks, rather than over the avenue, to avoid the drawbacks of elevated trains. It connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside buildings.
1847
1920s Death Avenue West Side Cowboys
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and tried to re-establish rail service on the Line.
The park extends from Gansevoort Street north to 30th Street where the elevated tracks turn west around the Hudson Yards development project to the Javits Convention Center on 34th Street. Open daily from 7 am to 10 pm, the park can be reached through nine entrances, four of which are accessible to people with disabilities.
Time Line 1980 - 2009
Time Line 1847 - 1980 The City of New York authorizes streetlevel railroad tracks down Manhattan’s West Side, already a bustling industrial waterfront. Soon, trains from Hudson River Rail Road and other lines begin to serve the factories and warehouses on the waterfront and along Tenth and Eleventh avenues.
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In the mid-1980s, a group of property owners with land under the line lobbied for the demolition of the entire structure. Peter Obletz, a Chelsea resident, activist, and railroad
1927 Plans an Elevated Line
1931 CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
1933 THE FIRST TRAIN RUNS ON THE HIGHLINE.
1934 THE HIGH LINE OFFICIALLY OPENS
1934 - 1960
delivering freight to the R.C. Williams & Company warehouse. At this time, the High Line is referred to simply as an elevated track.
the New York Times estimates its cost at $85M.
The High Line is fully operationall from West Thirty-fourth Street to St. John’s Park Terminal on Clarkson Street.
1980 THE LAST TRAIN
1980 THE LAST TRAIN
1983
1984 BUY THE LINE FROM CONRAIL FOR TEN DOLLARS
1991 DEMOLISHES THE SOUTHERNMOST FIVE BLOCKS OF THE HIGH LINE
1999
2003 DESIGN COMPETITION
2006 CONSTRUCTION BEGINS
2009 ON JUNE 8, HIGH LINE OPENS