High Line Blog

Negotiations between the MTA and Tishman Speyer have collapsed, according to the MTA, following a request from the developer to change the terms under which the project would be financed, as well as the project schedule. An agreement on the 26-acre site could not be reached.

Tishman Speyer was selected to develop the rail yards last month, after an eight-month bid process. Theirs was the high bid, at $1.004 billion, beating out the only other major contender, a joint partnership between Durst and Vornado.

Tishman Speyer was reportedly apprehensive about closing on the Eastern Rail Yards before the Western Rail Yards were rezoned, a process requiring public review and City approval on several levels. A rezoning is necessary for the developer to complete its massive high-density residential and commercial plan, and adds another variable to a project already troubled with the recent loss of an anchor tenant and an exceedingly complex financing plan.

A spokesman for Tishman Speyer insisted that the developer would continue to negotiate with the MTA to see if the differences could be worked out. A meeting is set for Monday, but the MTA is reportedly considering reopening negotiations with at least one of the four other developers who originally submitted bids.

Deal to Build at Railyards on West Side Collapses [NY Times]

MTA, Tishman Speyer Call off West Side Rail Yards Wedding [Observer]

Yardsmania: MTA Dumps Tishman Speyer, Chaos Ensues [Curbed]

… And so can you! There are still a few spots remaining for the remaining Sketching the High Line classes with artist Ann DeVere.

Last Saturday was the first class, and it was a really wonderful experience. Ann led us through a series of warm-up exercises to get our creative juices flowing, and then we sat for few longer sketches, observing and recording the unique viewpoint we had of the High Line and its surroundings.

Don’t miss this great opportunity!

There are spaces available for the following dates: May 10, May 17, and May 31; click here to sign up. All classes begin at 11 am and end at 12:30 pm. These classes are identical, so registration is only permitted for one class. Members receive a discount; click here for more information about becoming a member. More photos after the jump.

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[Click to enlarge]

Jonathan Flaum’s High Line series is one of our favorites. He took this shot of pigeons and the Church of the Guardian Angel in 2005, before construction on the High Line had begun.  Check out his Web site for more High Line pics.

Previous Photo of the Week

I was cleaning out photos on my cell phone and found this picture of a bird skeleton on the balast at the rail yards.

Actually, there are few pigeons, and virtually no rats or mice on the High Line. The reason? There are no people up there to feed them garbage.

The indispensable WPA Guide to New York City — a neighborhood-by-neighborhood survey from the the 1930’s Federal Writer’s Project — is one of my favorite sources of NYC nerdistry.

The chapter on Hell’s Kitchen reveals some of the colorful characters that once inhabited the area around the West Side rail yards- “a district that bears one of the most lurid reputations in America.”

It seems the New York Central Railroad– which built and operated the High Line– was largely responsible for taming the lawlessness of Hell’s Kitchen.

“Hell’s Kitchen acquired its reputation as one of the toughest areas in the city shortly after the Civil War. According to Herbert Asbury, who recorded many exploits of Hell’s Kitchen hoodlums in his book The Gangs of New York, the section deserved its notoriety. Its name, originally applied to a dive near Corlears Hook on the East Side, came from the Hell’s Kitchen Gang, organized in 1868 by Dutch Heinrichs. Although this gang specialized in raids on the Thirtieth Street yard of the Hudson River Railroad (now part of the New York Central), its repertoire included extortion, breaking-and-entering, professional mayhem, and highway robbery. It merged with the Tenth Avenue Gang, which had held up and robbed a Hudson River Railroad express train, and for decades terrorized the neighborhood. From its ranks rose the desperadoes who organized the Hudson Dusters and the Gophers.

“After the decline of the Hell’s Kitchen Gang, the Gophers achieved hegemony in the Hell’s Kitchen underworld. They made their headquarters in saloons such as one on “Battle Row” (Thirty-ninth Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues) operated by “Mallet” Murphy, who won his pseudonym by bludgeoning disputatious customers with a mallet. Leaders of the Gophers included “Happy Jack” Mulraney, “Goo Goo” Knox, “Stumpy” Malarkey, and “One Lung” Curran. Besides the Gophers, whose membership numbered nearly five hundred men, several smaller affiliated gangs such as the Gorillas, the Rhodes Gang, and the Parlor Mob waged consistant warfare against what was left of law and order in the neighborhood.

“Gangster rule of Hell’s Kitchen continued until 1910, when a special police force organized by the New York Central Railroad launched a counter-offensive. Clubbing, shooting, and arresting indiscriminately, they soon had most of the Gopher leadership in hospitals or behind bars and a majority of the lesser lights in flight. Remnants of the mobs functioned throughout the Prohibition era, but the backbone of Hell’s Kitchen gangsterdom had been effectively broken.”

According to Gmap Pedometer, we are moving 0.4628 miles.

We will pass under the High Line 3 times on the way.

Do YOU want to rent our old office?

Timothy Schenck, on our engineering team, has taken some beautiful site photos throughout the construction process.

More after the jump.

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There are just a few spots left for our weekend sketching classes on the rail yards section of the High Line this month!  The classes will be led by fantastic artist and printmaker Ann deVere, and all art supplies will be provided.  No innate drawing talent or prior experience is required.  Ann started giving these classes a few years ago at Wave Hill, and developed a huge following, so we feel very lucky to have her on board.  This is a rare opportunity to visit the High Line, so grab your spot now!

Saturday May 3, 10, 17, and 31 (please choose only one)
11:00-12:30PM
$25 Members
$50 Non-Members

RSVP for exact meeting location.

[The view looking north; from left to right, the Hudson River, the West Side Highway, and the Whitney, with the massing concentrated West, stepping down from 170 feet to 50 feet, above the High Line. Courtesy of Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Cooper, Robertson & Partners.]

Tonight the Whitney made public for the first time its preliminary drawings for a new museum at Gansevoort and Washington Streets, right next to the High Line’s southern terminus in the Meatpacking District.

Whitney Director Adam Weinberg presented Renzo Piano’s plans, calling the new facility a “return to the Whitney’s downtown roots.” The original Whitney was on West 8th Street in the Village, the site of the current Studio School. We might add that its location right on the High Line also creates a nice art context– a literal connection to the galleries of Chelsea.

The new museum will provide 185,000 square feet of space, almost doubling the current floorspace of the Madison Avenue location, and offering an opportunity for the Whitney to showcase its permanent collection. It will also house a block-long special exhibition gallery, a theater and performance space, an indoor-outdoor restaurant, several sculpture terraces, and education facilities integrated into the galleries themselves.

Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff of the New York Times is optimistic about the direction the design is headed, even going so far as to say that Renzo Piano’s design has “created a contemplative sanctuary where art reasserts its primary place in the cultural hierarchy.”

Logistically speaking, the new Whitney is important to the High Line in another way. Because the site is currently City-owned, it offers a rare opportunity for a much-needed Maintenance and Operations facility for the High Line. The new facility will be part of the easement of the Whitney, and is also being designed by Renzo Piano, but there will be no direct connection between it and the museum proper, and the M&O facility will be autonomously run by the Parks Department. The M&O facility will offer public restrooms, an elevator, and meeting rooms for community groups, as well as a home base for for landscaping, maintenance and security staff and equipment. If all goes according to plan, Friends of the High Line will also have offices there.

Right now, the High Line is scheduled to open 3 to 4 years before the Whitney, so in the meantime, our M&O facility will be a series of trailers on the High Line construction site itself. From what we saw of the Whitney’s plans tonight, though, it will be worth the wait.

Whitney’s Downtown Sanctuary [New York Times]

[Robert and Meredith might just quit their day jobs]

On Monday night, we were invited to the most exclusive of West Chelsea events: a FLOR-laying party in our new office on 20th Street.

In preparation for our move this weekend from our cramped quarters on 14th Street to our new palatial digs, we covered the bare concrete with squares of the “modern, modular” carpet in a soothing, short-pile gray.

FLOR, which uses no adhesive and is made of recycled materials, is part of our green-office initiative. It’s seriously cool– if only they made squares of wild grasses and shrubs, we’d have this whole High Line thing finished up in a snap.

[Jeff, Danya and Tara find the perfect FLOR-laying rhythm] 

[Rick tests the plushness of our newly FLORed surface]