An Old Abandoned Elevated Railway

The Beginning of the High Line at Gansevoort Street

I made several references in my post on the Meat Packing District to the new High Line Park. In recent years many of the deteriorating piers along the Hudson River have been turned into public parks. Thinking along those same lines, some westsiders worked tirelessly to get the high line, an old elevated railway that used to serve the factories and meat processing plants in the neighborhood, turned into a functional public space.

The park, opened just a matter of months now, is more or less a garden with a network of boardwalks running through it. It has a wonderful design which takes advantage of the different views of the neighborhood and the twists and turns of the railway.

Notice the lounge chairs in the photo above?

I believe that is a building designed by the celebrated architect Frank Gehry

The amphitheater (pictured above) faces a glass wall that looks out on Tenth Avenue. There's not really room for a stage, so I'm not exactly sure what this space will be used for, but it's kind of cool. Currently the park only runs up to 20th street, but there are plans to extend it all the way up to 34th Street, I believe. If you're like me and you're fascinated by interesting uses of public space, and the reimagination of urban infrastructure, it's definitely worth a visit.

Touring MEPA

Hudson Street in the Meat Packing District

On Sunday afternoon, I took a great walking tour with Bernie Cohen of Bernie's New York walking tours. Bernie does tours all over the city but this one was of the Meat Packing district or what the really cool kids call MEPA. A neglected neighborhood wedged between Greenwich Village and Chelsea, once filled with hundreds of meat processing plants (and the Nabisco factory where they made Milk Bone dog biscuits!), it is now one of the most posh neighborhoods in the city. It is filled with designer showrooms, fancy restaurants and boutique hotels.

View of the Highline Park from the Street

The tour included a history of the historic district and visits to some of the existing businesses in the area. The highlight was a tour of the Standard Hotel which straddles the new Highline Park and features floor to ceiling windows in all the rooms. (It has stirred up some controversy lately because of exhibitionism by hotel guests.) We saw three different rooms and the views were incredible.

View from Standard Hotel Looking Out Over the HighLine

The streets were also filled with trailers and equipment because they were filming Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2.

I can't really afford to shop or eat in MEPA, but walking around was cool. Oh yeah, and did I mention that there are still meatpackers in MEPA?