A Little Rain Never Hurt Anybody

Today’s blog post was guest written by one of our new Greeters, Claudia Berger. Today I was on the High Line for its first morning in operation. I was very impressed by how determined people were to see it– not even the rain could stop them. Visitors braved the rain, but none of them felt [...]

MCNY Panel Calls for West Side Development Oversight, Funding Transparency

At a panel discussion at the Museum of the City of New York last night, planners and community advocates criticized the lack of coordination going into the planning for the West Side. The sheer mass of public and private development planned for the West Side (between 14th and 42nd Street, West of 8th Avenue) is staggering.   Besides the Rail Yards themselves, current [...]

Open letter to the MTA from Hudson Yards Community Advisory Committee

HYCAC, an official community coalition made up of members of Community Board 4, local electeds and community organizations, has written a letter to MTA CEO Lee Sander with its reaction to the five proposals. The letter also brings up community concerns about the planning process at large, including the lack of infrastructure and affordable housing planning, the [...]

CB4 and HYCAC’s Discussion Document

Manhattan Community Board 4 and HYCAC developed this document to synthesize information about the MTA’s guidelines for the rail yards site, as well as overviews of the five proposals. It was intended for discussion at the December 10 public forum, but serves as a good reference for comparing the plans side-by-side. Download the PDF (Be [...]

Update on Community Forum Breakout Sessions

  As promised, here’s a quick discussion of the break-out sessions moderated (in some cases) by members of Friends of the High Liine at the community forum presented by Community Board 4 on Monday. The graph above represents some of the main concerns expressed by the various groups (there were 13 groups in all, so [...]

Developer Exhibition Ends Friday

Friday is the last day of the public exhibition of all five developer proposals, in a storefront near Grand Central. The exhibition includes design boards, models, and last time we checked, a representative from each developer on hand to answer questions. Those details again: Rail Yards Proposals Exhibition 335 Madison Avenue (Northwest corner of Vanderbilt [...]

Plans Aired to the Community at the Hudson Guild

On Monday night, over 200 interested members of the community (as well as political figures such as New York State Senator Tom Duane) gathered at the Hudson Guild at an event sponsored by Community Board 4 and the Hudson Yards Community Advocacy Coalition that included presentations from the five developers who have submitted plans for [...]

Five Questions for Five Developers

Rail Yards Blog is developing a set of five questions to ask each developer about their proposals for the rail yards site. We want to hear from you: what would you most like to ask the developers? The five questions will be posted on Rail Yards Blog next week.

Video: Cooper Union Architect Presentations

On Monday, architects from the five development teams presented their designs to the public at Cooper Union. Videos of each presentation are now available. Please note these videos have been edited down for length, and the sound quality is not great. Steven Holl for Extell Robert AM Stern, Bernardo Fort Brescia, Eugene Kohn and Claire [...]

Principles for the High Line at the Rail Yards

Friends of the High Line is developing a series of principles for the treatment of the High Line at the rail yards. We strongly urge the MTA to make the following principles a requirement for the selected rail yards developer.  The developers’ proposals demonstrate that all of these principles are feasible.  We look forward to [...]