“Cheap Lunchrooms, Tawdry Saloons and Waterfront Haberdasheries”

The 1930′s Federal Writers Project WPA Guide to New York City, which I love, has a great description of the Hudson waterfront during the time the High Line was built. From the chapter “West Street and North (Hudson) River Waterfront”: The broad highway, West Street and its continuations, which skirts the North River from Battery [...]

Let the Sun Shine In (to the Meatpacking District)

This Wednesday, July 9, the new Gansevoort Plaza will play host to a free musical “be-in” featuring songs from the classic counter-cultural musical Hair. The performance is a collaboration between the Theory Icon Project and the Public Theater, which is staging Hair, on its 40th anniversary, as part of this year’s Shakespeare in the Park [...]

Whitney Designs Revealed

[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 [...]

Photo of the Week: Aerial from 15th Street

[Click image to enlarge] This one was taken before construction began, in the fall of 2005. In the foreground, the High Line runs above the (soon to be gone) Chelsea Car Wash, before ducking through the former Cudahy Meatpacking plant. Last week’s Photo of the Week  

Reminder: On Wednesday, Follow “Chalk Shoes to the High Line”

How do you get to the High Line? Tomorrow, a group of eighth-grade students from the Lab School will be leading the way… in brightly-colored “chalk shoes.” Brooklyn-based artist Julia Mandle will lead student performers through the streets of the Meatpacking District and Chelsea, in a performance commissioned by Friends of the High Line. As [...]

Chalk Shoes to the High Line

Friends of the High Line is set to kick off our spring programming season, and we’ll be starting off with a bang.  We’ve commissioned Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist Julia Mandle to work with a group of 60 students from the Lab School in Chelsea to mount a performance and exhibition this April and May.  The kids, all 8th-grade [...]

Florent: “Don’t Cry for Me”

  An update on the imminent closing of beloved Meatpacking District institution Florent, which will soon lose its lease after 22 years on Gansevoort Street: According to the Villager‘s resident news-cat Scoopy, restauranteur Florent Morellet is not looking for another space, but is excited to pursue other projects, including writing his memoir and devoting more [...]

Photo of the Week: West Side Cowboy Twofer

[Cowboy on 10th Avenue and 17th Street. Click to enlarge.] This is one of our favorite historical images. The West Side Cowboys were employed by the City to ride in front of street-level freight trains and wave pedestrians out of the way. This was the City’s stopgap measure to stop the carnage on what was known [...]

Gearing Up for Meatpacking District Design Week

Our neighbors at The Meatpacking District Initiative have just announced some details about Meatpacking District Design Week 2008, happening the weekend of May 16-18.  Design Week events typically include afternoon and evening exhibitions, product launches, panel discussions, art installations, and cocktail parties, all held in venues, stores, and restaurants around the Meatpacking District.  The showcase happens every spring and is timed to [...]

Photo of the Week: Rainy Day Woman

[Click image to enlarge] In honor of the dismal weather forecast for this week, here’s my favorite rain shot of the High Line. This is an old meatpacking platform on 13th Street turned impromptu surrealist still-life. Previous Photo of the Week