[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/303039989

Manhattan: High Line park developers will try a new tack
Parts of the final section will be only temporary as surrounding area takes shape.





By Annie Karni
March 3, 2013

At West 30th Street and 10th Avenue, a locked metal gate separates the northern end of the High Line from the weedy stretch destined to become its third and final section.

Today, that stretch, which swings out to 12th Avenue before arcing around to its end at West 34th Street near 11th Avenue, is buried beneath 150,000 cubic feet of soil that has accumulated there since the last train—loaded with frozen turkeys—used it back in 1980 and the line fell into disrepair.

Workers are currently digging up the "urban fill" to get to the structure beneath. By June, the last of the decades-old dirt will be gone, and landscapers will be planting, and installing seating and lights. Then, finally, sometime next year the metal gate will come down and visitors will stroll the last half-mile of the world's most famous park on stilts—perhaps stopping at a new picnic area shaded by umbrellas spinning in the wind.

The northernmost leg of the line will be a major departure from the park New Yorkers and tourists have grown to love. For starters, more than half of it will be temporary when it opens. Second, the neighborhood the park will frame does not yet exist. Today, it is a 26-acre storage yard for the Long Island Rail Road. Over the coming years, the Related Cos. will build a platform with 16 buildings, including offices, residences and even a school. A grand new tree-lined Hudson Boulevard will extend northward to West 38th Street

Added value

Already, the developer and the park's designers are expecting to add value to each other. Late last year, Related began work on a 51-story headquarters for luxury-goods maker Coach. That tower will boast a multistory atrium designed to offer sweeping views of the High Line.

"The opportunity to build in the neighborhood—and to have the adjacency to the High Line—is something we're very excited about," said Jason Weisenfeld, senior vice president of global brand communications for Coach.

Park planners, meanwhile, are leaving room in their design for changes as Hudson Yards takes shape. "The High Line will adapt and change gradually with the neighborhood," said Peter Mullan, vice president for planning and design at Friends of the High Line. "It will be a unique vantage point from which to see the transformation of Hudson Yards." To preserve their options, High Line leaders are building more than half of the third section simply as an interim walkway. There, the current, unlandscaped vegetation will remain untouched.

"We will just put down a simple path in the existing landscape," Mr. Mullan said. "On the one hand, it's less capitally intensive. Also, we think it's exciting to allow people to see what the High Line was." That temporary section could remain for 15 years, depending on the pace of progress at Hudson Yards. But building a park in a neighborhood that is also under construction poses some unique problems. The corner of West 30th Street and 10th Avenue is a prime example. There, four building projects are going on simultaneously.

On the north side of the West 30th street, Tower C of Hudson Yards—the commercial tower that will be anchored by Coach headquarters—is under construction. On the south side of the street, a residential building is rising. Beneath the street, city workers are digging deep to install a new water main. And above all that, work crews are rebuilding the High Line. Still, park workers are plunging ahead to meet their deadlines.

"The big idea right now is to get to 34th Street as quickly as we possibly can," said Mr. Mullan as he gave Crain's a tour of the work site. "The big prize here is that the entire length of the High Line is going to be complete much quicker than anyone thought."

In the past two weeks, construction crews completed sandblasting the steel trestle and have begun applying thick coats of "greenblack," the High Line hue marketed nationwide by Sherwin-Williams. Nearly 800 gallons have been applied to the stretch that runs to 12th Avenue.