Sunday, August 09, 2009

Get on the High Line


New York's High Line, an old, abandoned elevated track for freight trains, opened to the public a couple months ago as a park and trail. I'd been rooting for it to happen because it has inspired similar ideas like the Bloomingdale Trail that is being planned in Chicago.

Each time I've gone to New York over the years I've enjoyed finding street art hidden underneath the High Line's tracks. The first metal REVS piece I ever saw was at the southern end of the High Line in the Meatpacking District. It was designed to blend in with a truck loading dock underneath. There was also a lot of classic New York graffiti painted alongside the tracks like the stuff pictured in this photograph by Jonathan Flaum.
At the top is a photograph by Joel Sternfeld as the High Line appeared before renovation. Below is what it looks like now. Photo by Rosinberg on Flickr.


This next image is a design planned for part 2 of the renovation, a cutout of the tracks as it passes over 30th St.


I'll end this post with this Art of Noise video for Close to the Edit, which was filmed on the High Line tracks in the mid 80's. It's still a great song.

2 comments:

marloca said...

wow! what a video! they sure don't make em like that any more! crazy...

Oscar Arriola said...

haha, I know. I remember arguing with my aunt when this came out. I thought it was a girl and she kept insisting that it was a midget.