Everybody loves the new Highline park. It’s built on an old railway line that runs down the west side of Manhattan. People can stroll on it. It has that striking World Without Us post-human aesthetic that’s quite chic at the moment.
Well, everybody except the ever-provocative James Howard Kunstler (who we interviewed not so long ago). He loathes it. On his blog, he says:
[The new Standard hotel is] intended as an accessory to the city’s new High Line “park” — a weed-filled 1.5 mile-long stretch of abandoned elevated railroad right-of-way. We do everything stupidly now in the United States. Stupidity is the new fashion sensation! And the Standard is the new Ground Zero of Fashion! In this project, mistakes are artfully multiplied and layered — for instance the assumption that New York City doesn’t need railroad tracks anymore. Or the notion that buildings don’t have to relate to the street-and-block grid. Instead of repairing the discontinuities of recent decades we just celebrate them and make them worse. That’s decadence at its purest.
One of Kunstler’s consistent themes is that America has become a nation of juvenile-minded people who live in a fantasyland of cultural distraction and have forgotten how to do real stuff. (Like keeping our barns from falling over.) We’re good at getting creative tattoos and minutely calculating the social implications of our hairdos — but not so good at the hard and relentless work of looking after the foundations of our society. We came into a vast amount societal capital, the argument goes, and like a spoiled trust fund kid sobering up after an epic binge, we’re starting to realize that we’ve burned through the inheritance and are going to have go get a job at Burger King or something. And jobs really do suck, in the same way that working railroads suck compared to a place where Diane von Furstenberg hangs out.
But, kinda, that’s life — right?
Kunstler goes with the word ‘decadence’ in his critique of the Highline, which is a tricky word in a culture saturated by spectacle and excess. (A culture where cagefighting has its own media.) But some hard aspect of the word is probably exposed in that choice between a working railroad and a playspace.
It’s important to keep in mind that this is not necessarily a critique founded in practical reality. It’s Kunstler lobbying a hand grenade into the discourse. The Highline was never going to be rehabbed as a rail line. But it theoretically could have been, and that’s enough for him.
Whatever one makes of this particular battle, Kunstler is winning is the war — we really are starting to pay more attention to what remains of productive structures that have been grossly neglected for the past three decades or so (things like abandoned railroads). The realization has come in time, hopefully.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
What a ridiculous position he takes. While we shouldn’t be building elevated structures everywhere to make room for parks, repurposing an existing elevated structure is a great idea. While it is great that “buildings relate to the street-and-block grid”, we don’t need to do this everywhere all the time. If we do, all we end up with are really boring cities. I wouldn’t want Highline Parks everywhere, they would get rather boring but one or two here and there are interesting features that can add life to a city.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
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June 15th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I feel Kunstler is pushing it a bit on this one, or at least needed a new angle from which he could scream about this week.
For sure our society has been on one drunken spree after another, whether it be via derivatives, war, or through purely decadent over indulgence on all things consumed (see Premium M&Ms - was that necessary? Really?). But NYC is a global city with or with out staggeringly concocted Wall Street profits. There will always be a decadent side to the cosmopolitan aspects of global cities. It is just the way it is, and I think in some cases – design, art + architecture – it is aspirational). Should he be wishing us away from that, I’d say good luck. After all, the Investment Banker’s Girlfriends (dabagirls.com) have gotten together to wish upon the stars for bottle service to return with haste; but not move on to more Kunstler-esque productive endeavors.
In terms of infrastructure, NYC went upscale on a park. So what? We have let our infrastructure and public spaces be cut down to the most cost-effective and banal expressions of our planning, architectural, and engineering capabilities. Kunstler thinks its weeds; Gilles Clément, has presented those weeds as the Third Landscape: http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/clement.html and http://www.cca.qc.ca/pages/Niveau3.asp?page=environnement&lang=eng So what Kunstler decries as decadence, I think is an intellectual expression of retrofit design of a relic that was never going to be called on for productive service again.
It was there for many years serving as an abandoned and simply agonizing reminder of what we dismissed as old economy. The warehouses, meatpacking and the like all went away and with it the need for an elevated freight railroad. If there was the slightest of possibilities that it could have been reused as a rail line, I’m sure CSX would not have let it be railbanked. If Kunstler had wished it continue to serve as a reminder of a better time via its previous eyesore state, then I guess that would be one argument for having never converted its use. But to think we would have had the chance to reuse it in its original format is wishful thinking. I’m with Kunstler on the illogical conversion of rails to trails in other places, but this one example does nots stand fit to serve his argument.
On another note - I do not agree that the Standard Hotel would have to relate with the streets and grid. It provides contrast against 200 streets and 11 avenues of buildings that do just that all without his prod. On that point, Kunstler and I would never agree. I’m a modernist who likes to thinks he’s learned the lessons of the misery many modernist architects and planners put upon unknowing city dwellers and their neighborhoods. If six more buildings just like the Standard were going to go up in the neighborhood, I’d agree we have a problem. The neighborhood I live in Boston, is a horribly boring and trite new urbanist community that mocks the craftsmanship of the past with cheap post-modern allusions to my neighborhood’s past - but it restored the street gird that was once destroyed by modernists - so Kunstler would approve on that alone. The Standard Hotel pictured above rises out of the brick to remind people that we do live in the 21st century, not some ill-conceived regurgitation of what a hotel might have been like in 18th or 19th century NYC.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
t joey, considering I’m from Somerville, just curious what Boston neighborhood you’re referring to?
June 15th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Having grown up next to the High Line ( I remember when trains ran on it!) I have mixed feelings about what it has become, and look at the Standard Hotel as a bit of a tombstone at the head of its grave. It is wonderful that the line was saved from destruction by Giuliani, and a park makes good sense if the city isn’t going to use it for a train line, but the super luxury buildings that have popped up along its route have brought a drastic change to the character of the neighborhood, and its not all for the best. The size of many of the buildings will leave the park in deep shadow if they are all completed. There will be many more buildings on the scale of the Standard to rise in the empty lots along its path, when the real estate economy recovers. Luckily the design standards started by the High Line advocates has created a competitive environment that has brought some of the best modern architects to these projects. But sadly in our hyper capitalist city, the park, as the neighborhood around it that was once mixed and working class, is now a playground for the rich and famous.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I live in the mixed-income community Maverick Landing, which replaced what I have been told was the ghastly Maverick Gardens in East Boston. It was a Hope VI funded re-development. I didn’t pick to live here – the other half did – but I have a great view of Downtown.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
The standard Kuntsler blather. Have presuppositions about people. Don’t study the context. Make superficial judgments. Somehow tie it in to peak oil - or capitalism. Sound really angry. Publish.
I don’t disagree that there’s decadence in the Meatpacking district, or that people are increasingly tied to a fragile system of made-up stuff. But his assumptions that these people can’t survive a day of hard labor is an insult to humanity, and and indication that he’s in over his head.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
t joey:
Thanks for sharing. The neighborhood looks pretty good, but definitely doesn’t look like there is much going on.
The problem with all this new urban development, is that it tends to drive up the prices on everything and diminishing the very thing it is meant to accomplish.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
[...] (Via Infrastructurist) [...]
June 16th, 2009 at 1:29 am
well i suppose the high line probably could have been made into a segment of rapid transit line, after all the westside of manhattan in this very area is underserved by the subway. at least they didnt demo this elevated and unique piece of infrastructure. look at the ‘liverpool overhead railway’ for a similar waterfront elevated line that was unfortunately torn down
i cant say i’m a fan of the standard hotel, but i’ve definitely seen much worse. just seems like a poor knock off copy of those cold repetitive international style buildings i thought we stopped building 50 years ago.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
“I’m with Kunstler on the illogical conversion of rails to trails in other places, but this one example does nots stand fit to serve his argument.”
Rails to trails is actually something that someone in favor of more railroads should support. Converting the lines to trails preserves the rights of way of the rail lines. Should money and public will allow for the reconstruction of the infrastructure, it guarantees that the land will be available.
I don’t forsee the High Line being turned back into a rail line, but should the need arise, the infrastructure and land are preserved.
June 17th, 2009 at 11:38 am
>>
Doug said:
“Rails to trails is actually something that someone in favor of more railroads should support. Converting the lines to trails preserves the rights of way of the rail lines. Should money and public will allow for the reconstruction of the infrastructure, it guarantees that the land will be available.”<<
I host a weekly audio podcast with Kunstler (called “The KunstlerCast”). JHK has addressed rail to trails projects several times on the show. He has said that he supposes rails to trails are OK as a form of landbanking. But he would prefer if the trail were constructed beside the train tracks, rather than ripping up the tracks. (Many states, like New York, have ripped up their second or third rail line anyway so the space is there.) There is a bike trail like that in Dallas, I believe, that he has talked about.
The following installment of the podcast includes many of JHK’s thoughts on bicycle trail projects:
KunstlerCast #59: The Role of Bicycles
http://kunstlercast.com/shows/KunstlerCast_59_Bicycles.html
I would enjoy chatting with Kunstler further about the Highline on the podcast. Please consider calling the podcast listener comment line to record some of your specific questions about his thoughts on the Highline:
(866) 924-9499 toll free.
Thanks.
June 29th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
As an annual Australian visitor to what I like to call my favourite city, New York, I walked the High Line with my son just a couple of weeks ago. I think it is fantastic, and shows the kind of vision and farsightedness of which you New Yorkers are so capable of (e.g., Central Park, and Prospect Park). Tasteful landscaping, brilliant public furniture, it has it all. But, apart from all that, what a brilliant way to get (eventually) from 14th to 30th: no traffic lights, no congestion. Well done, New York!
October 29th, 2009 at 3:17 am
KunstlerCast #86: The High Line
Rails to Freakish Parks
Released: Oct. 29 2009.
James Howard Kunstler discusses two major projects that have recently turned 19th century railroad structures into parks: the High Line in lower Manhattan and the Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The High Line is a unique park in New York City, built upon a former elevated rail line that used to bring trains through buildings. Although the High Line gives reprieve to New Yorkers, Kunstler finds it to be an accidental freak of urban nature. We would benefit more from the deliberate creation of beautifully designed streets and boulevards at grade level. …
http://kunstlercast.com/shows/KunstlerCast_86_High_Line.html
June 23rd, 2010 at 10:14 pm
I have not visited Highline Park as of yet. Is it a nice place to get arrested?
The reason I ask is. chances are if I go I’ll be selling my art there and I know the BILLIONAIRE MAYOR and the BIDS are HUNTING ARTISTS [to lock them up]. I know this to be a fact after being BUSTED May 20, (for selling my art downtown].
This past Monday I arrived to Community Court [6-21] @ 54 St where there was so many people [dangerous felons] waiting to get into the court there was a line of 150+ people outside [more then likely that’s a violation of of Civil Rights but who needs or expects ‘RIGHTS’ in NYC anymore, The Mayor has turned this once amazing city into a POLICE STATE. btw when I got popped, NYPD never read me my RIGHTS!
The only reason I’m writing here is because I just saw our hypocrite Mayor on TV talking about the park and artists (and I almost puked). Blomberg speaking about the ‘parks and artists’ is like Hitler mentioning ‘Jews and freedom’ in the same story.
One more thing, Mayor Moneybags said; ” This is NYC, this is where it’s happening, this is where you want to be” end quote.
PS HEY MR. MAYOR LIGHTEN UP ON ARRESTING NYC PUBLIC ARTISTS BECAUSE BEING IN JAIL IS NOT WHERE WE WANT TO BE!