The most comprehensive, up-to-date, and acclaimed guide to the High Line by the leading expert on the history of the park—now in a fully revised edition
Built atop a former freight railroad, the “park in the sky” is regularly cited as one of the premiere examples of adaptive reuse and quickly became one of New York’s most popular destinations, attracting more than 8 million visitors a year. This updated Third Edition of On the High Line— published to coincide with the fifteenth anniversary of the park’s opening—remains the definitive guide to the park that transformed an entire neighborhood and became an inspiration to cities around the globe.
In short entries organized by roughly two city block sections, the guide provides rich details about everything in view on both sides of the park. Illustrated with more than 110 black & white photographs, it covers historic and modern architecture; plants and horticulture; and important industries and technological innovations that developed in the neighborhoods the park traverses, from book publishing and food distribution to the introduction of cold storage and the development of radar, the elevator, and talking movies. Updated to include newly opened sections of the park, this edition also features a new conversation pertaining to the more controversial side of the High Line’s story and how it became a poster child for the most grievous manifestations of gentrification and inequity in public spaces. Author Annik LaFarge provides a frank discussion on how the park’s leadership created a platform for discussing these issues and for advising other projects on how to work more inclusively and from a social justice and equity perspective.
On the High Line serves as an educated travel companion, someone invisibly perched on a visitor’s shoulder who can answer every question, including what was here before, moving back in time through the early 20th century, the Industrial Revolution, and the colonial and pre-European times when this stretch of what we call Manhattan was home to the Lenape people and much of it was covered by the waters of the Hudson River. A companion website with more than 650 photos—historic, contemporary, rooftop and aerial—can be viewed at HighLineBook.com.
Introducing the High Line
New Preface to the Third Edition xiii
Prologue: The Story of the High Line, from Elevated Railroad to Linear Park
xxii
Foreword by Rick Darke xxxiv
Joel Sternfeld xxxix
Designing the High Line xli
Piet Oudolf and the Plants of the High Line xlvi
Section One: Gansevoort14th Street
The Slow Stairs, 5 Friends of the High Line, 6 Gansevoort Woodland, 9
Mannahatta
Then and Now, 11 The Manhattan Refrigerating Company, 12 Washington
Grasslands,
13 Wildlife on the High Line, 14 Whitney Museum , 15 Gansevoort
Pumping Station, 18
Pier 52 and Day's End, 19 Thirteenth Avenue and Gansevoort Peninsula, 20
Pier 54 and
Little Island, 24 The Meatpacking District, 27 14th Street Passage, 29
P. F. Collier &
Son, 30 The Louche Hotels, 31
Section Two: 14th16th Streets
The Bog, 37 Piers and Pile Fields, 38 Pier 57, 39 The Sundeck, 40
Hoboken Terminal,
40 Chelsea Market, 41 The Northern and Southern Spurs, 44 Merchants
Refrigerating
Company Warehouse, 46 Piet Oudolf's Favorites, 46 The Spring Cutback, 48
Other
High Lines, 50
Section Three: 16th20th Streets
Death Avenue Amphitheater, 59 The West Side Cowboy, 59 Tenth Avenue
Square, 62
Chelsea Grasslands, 63 New Architecture along the High Line, Part One, 64
Tenement
Houses, 68 High Line Art, 70 Astilbe, Allium 'Mt. Everest', Staghorn
Sumac, 70 The
Chelsea Piers, 71 Grasses, 73 Publishing and Printing, 75 Breaking the
Grid, 75
Clement Clarke Moorea.k.a. SealPark , 76 Guardian Angel Church, 77
Holly on the
High Line, 78
Section Four: 20th23rd Streets
West Chelsea, 81 The Chelsea Thicket, 82 General Theological Seminary,
82 The Art Deco
Prison, 83 The Life Savers Building, 84 The Warehouse Law, 85 Center
of Amusements, 86
The Spears Building and Seating Steps, 87 The Prairie Lawn, 88 The
Chelsea Hotel, 90
The Empire Diner, 91 The Gallery and Art Scene, 92 London Terrace
Apartments, 94 The
Original People's Park, 95
Section Five: 23rd26th Streets
The Slow Park, 99 New Architecture along the High Line, Part Two, 99 The
Flyover, 102
Tree of Heaven: From Beloved to Bemoaned, 103 From Global Grocer to World
School, 104
H. Wolff Book Manufacturing Co., 105 Magnolias, 106 The Modern Luxury
Cruise, 107
The Great Spires, 108 Water Towers, 110 Heavy Metal in West Chelsea, 111
Otis Elevator
Company, 112 Pharmacy in the Sky, 114 The Lighterage Era, 114
Section Six: 26th30th Streets
The Wildflower Field, 121 The High Line Zeitgeist, 121 Peter Obletz, 123
New York's
Lumberyard, 124 The Radial Bench, 124 "Make the Place Sittable", 125
30th Street Cut-
Out, 126 The Central Stores Complex, 126 The Morgan General Mail
Facility and Abraham
Lincoln, 128
Section Seven: The Interim Walkway
The Crossroads, 135 The Eastern Rail Yards and the Rail Track Walk, 135
Keep It Wild: The
Interim Walkway, 137 The Divine Wild Carrot, 139 Hell's Kitchen, 140
The Javits Center
Green Roof, 141 34th Street Entry Plaza and CSX Transportation Gate, 142
Section Eight: 30th34th Streets
The Shed, 147 Hudson Yards, 147 Tenth Avenue Spur, 148 Westyard
Distribution Center,
150 The Moynihan Connector, 151 The Time Line, 154
Acknowledgments 157
Notes 161
Bibliography 175
Index 179
Annik LaFarge has been writing about the High Line since 2009, beginning with the blog LivinTheHighLine.com, selected by the Columbia University Libraries Web Resources Collection Program for inclusion in the Avery Library Historic Preservation and Urban Planning web archive. LaFarge is a Trustee and Chair for the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and author of Chasing Chopin: A Musical Journey Across Three Centuries, Four Countries, and a Half-Dozen Revolutions.
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