The High Line

July 23, 2018

 

The High Line

One of the coolest things that has happened in New York in the last decade and something that I had never seen is the High Line, located on the West side of the city the High Line is 1.5 mile elevated city park along the route of a former New York Central railroad train. The elevated tracks have been reclaimed and repurposed as a beautiful city park that runs from Gansevoort Street – three blocks below 14th Street, in the Meatpacking District– through Chelsea to the northern edge of the West Side Yard on 34th Street near the Javits Center.

 

 

The abandoned spur has been redesigned as a "living system" drawing from multiple disciplines which include landscape architecture, urban design, and ecology. Since opening in 2009, the High Line has become an icon of contemporary landscape architecture. The development of the park has spurred renewed interest in the area and tons of new construction is happening to take advantage of the area.

 

We went down to the Meatpacking district to meet one of my bosses, George III, or G3 as we call him for lunch. We ended up at the beer garden restaurant at the Standard Hotel. Located directly under the High Line, The Biergarten at the Standard features communal seating, ping pong tables and a great selection of German beer and food, including Bitburger, Kostrizer & Licher, as well as a full bar.

 

G3 and Michael

The food was delicious, various brats, wurst, pretzels and more beer garden fare. The entire place speaks to the renaissance that the meatpacking district is undergoing. In addition to gritty wholesale meat and beer distributors, the area has an increasing number of hipster joints and upscale hotels, bars and eateries, but the same could be said for much of the city.

 

After lunch we walked almost the entire length of the High Line up to its terminus at 34^th Street. Along the way we enjoyed the wonderful lush vegetation, fantastic views and we even saw a photo shoot with some fashion models who were using the park as their backdrop.

 

From 34^th Street we walked back over through Times Square once again to our hotel, stopping only at the world famous Jazz Club, Birdland to check it out. While not the original Birdland, that one closed due to outrageous rent increases, the current location still has a fair amount of history associated with it and continues to showcase the best jazz performers in the world on a nightly basis. It was a pretty cool stop, though not much was happening when we stopped by.

 

The evening was reserved for another Broadway musical extravaganza as we had tickets to see the recently opened adaptation of the 2013 Disney film, “Frozen”. I know there are many who believe that the Disneyfication of Broadway is a terrible thing, but I disagree, seeing literally hundreds of young children being introduced to a Broadway play by attending Frozen was actually pretty cool.

 

 

The show itself had spectacular special effects and incredible singing performances, especially on the power ballads by stars Patti Murin and Caissie Levy playing Elsa and Anna respectively. The rest of the cast was stellar too, but the show seemed just a little bloated and dragged at times. It was good fun though and I would certainly take your kids if you have a chance. 

 

http://www.birdlandjazz.com/

 

http://www.thehighline.org/

https://frozenthemusical.com/