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May 05, 2005
The High Line Exhibition
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For all of us who are following the story of the transformation of the High Line from an abandoned elevated highway to a ribbon of park, this little exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art perfectly captures our excitement and also ambivalence about the project. The installation in the third floor Architecture and Design galleries includes a model, axonometric drawings, and planting plans. We think it's by far the most poetic, site sensitive and inspiring urban project we have seen in some time. The plans and models are admirably readable for the lay person, so visitors can appreciate the linear quality of the park, which is about progression through but above the city. The implication of movement is reinforced by the planting, which transforms itself along the way from wetland to woodland to grassland, retaining the wild dimension of the present High Line. Plant nuts (we are guilty) will love the planting plans; they are only preliminary but help furnish the site in the imagination. The access points to the park are cleverly managed; not too intrusive but effectively changing the mood from the street to the park.
The ambivalence comes with the other parts of the exhibition, which focus on the present, Joel Sternfeld's four marvelous, melancholic photos and a video of the High Line. These are so poignant, and so evocative of the ephemeral and decayed beauty of the site, one has to ask, should we loose this? The answer is sadly- yes. It's going to be a beautiful park. In any case, as the signs all over the exhibition emphasize...we're talking private property here, and those of us who make up the general public are not permitted up.
The question occurs, will this actually get built? As always in New York, only if enough money can be raised, but The Friends of the High Line seem to be gathering steam and the City of New York has already committed funds.
Exhibition: April 20 to July 18, 2005
Links: Friends of the High Line and MoMA
Posted by gardenguidenyc at May 5, 2005 03:46 PM