How times change. Final segment of the High Line redevelopment
That sculpture is awful…lol. Has way to much mass for the open space and dominates it too much.
Art is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t hold the artist’s eye for it.
I wonder if a light rail shuttle on the high line would have the same effect? Each of the new condos and offices (that were former warehouses) would have there own station. and in reality the high line IS railbanked so a railroad could demand it back as per STB law.
The sculpture is called “Brick House…”
I’ve seen worse. Looks almost like an oversized chess piece.
It could have been an artist’s depiction of a locomotive - undoubtedly European, if they were to follow the usual course.
While something like light rail would be nice - at least the line has been used in a creative way.
I think there is more to it than that. Prior to the subway system, New York had an elevated or “EL” train system that covered the city. It was heavily used but not popular.
So NYC might have laws on the books about “EL” trains to prevent their comeback.
Most of the subway lines in New York City outside of Manhattan are elevated. You’ve seen “The French Connection,” right? Those lines are still there. When you take the subway over the Manhattan bridge, it is only underground on the Manhattan side, in Brooklyn, it’s elevated.
Awful sculpture? It is not quite as bad as the banana that was taped to something–and some non compos bought it at a high price.
The High Line has been abandoned and unmaintained for almost 40 years. Who would want to build public transit on a structure that may be at the end of its life span. As mentioned, elevated rail is not popular in mid or lower Manhattan. Plus there is rapid transit subway stop at the Hudson Yards, and also down 8th Avenue.
It’s not often that you see a head on top of a cucumber.
Especially that large.
Ed
Be careful what you ask for. If I remember correctly, one of the ori proposals for the High Line Park involved hanging what I remember as an ATSF 4-8-4 from the cab vertically downward, a kind of aerial Cadillac Ranch. And I don’t mean a lightweight fiberglass casting of a 2900 class, either.
Not quite as incomprehensible as the dead-roach 52 in Essen, but you could see it from there…
I think I can weigh in on the subject of using the remaining High Line structure for transit purposes. !. It isn’t necessary. The area is well served by north-south 4-track subways on 7th and 8th Avenues, and crosstown buses about every half mile or closer to connect to them, plus the “7” at Hudson Park directly to Times Square and Grand Central Terminal.
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It would be isolated, incovenient for any potential users, and hardly situated to bring people between homes and jobs, entertainment, and shopping.
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The potential for transit use was thoroughly evaluated before the decision made to make it a linear park.
Point of fact: There are now only two East River bridges that carry rail transit, the Willialmsburg and the Manhattan. Formerly, the Brooklyn and Queensboro also had rail transit, indeed with elevated structures at both ends. But the Manhattan leads to subway portals at both ends, and only the Williamsburg connects to an elevated structure on one end (J, N, Z). It is true that the outer ends of three of the Manhattan Bridge’s four services, Q and B on Brighton, and D on West End, do use elevated structures after running through Brooklyn subway tunnels. The elevated operation of the fourth, the N, is in Queens, accessed by the 60th Street tunnel, reaching the Astoria elevated structure at Queensboro Plaza.
Rather than a head-on-a-cucumber, I would have preferred a freight car truck, or two, placed on what SHOULD be the real rails in evidence. Perhaps even an old freight car.
Of course there’s the legal liabilities involved: nobody’s going to fall off the head-on-a-cucumber, nor will they get a splinter that festers. Nor a finger crushed when someone slams the boxcar door shut. Endless possibilities for litigation!
And it wouldn’t be ART. Or would it? See banana-on-wall. If an ARTIST placed the trucks, it would then be ART. See also earlier mention of locomotive-hanging.
Ed
The rails are still in place on the High Line- there are wooden chaise lounge chairs mounted on flanged wheels here and there. The walkable surface is over top of the rails but there are areas where the rails are visible. It is a really great thing that they did, making it into a park. I wish they would do that with the Gardiner Expressway here in Toronto. Damn thing is an eyesore and falling apart as it is.