I came across a new plan to develop the no-mans-land south of Tribeca on the real estate blog Curbed. Check out the new Greenwich South! I love the idea of designing an entire neighborhood, developing a new community, and breathing new life into an area. The plans represent a reimagining of the area, opening up the world trade center site to allow Greenwich street to run through, thus connecting the West Village and Tribeca neighborhoods to this new community. These are not finalized plans, so it’s pretty funny that they designed the New Yorker cover already! I would love to see this happen if the plans aim towards creating a new location contributing to nyc culture. However, if the development plan calls for big box outlet stores and chains it wouldn’t bring me down there, that’s for sure.
A successful recent addition to the nyc landscape is the High Line. The High Line is a beautifully designed park floating above the western side of lower Manhattan. The streamlined form and consistency make it aesthetically pleasing and the views and location make it a huge tourist attraction. The design integrated it’s original use as a train track into the current purpose, and the whole look is very organic. Benches and lounge chairs rise on angles from the long wooden tracks running through the entire park. It’s incredible that the High Line was going to be torn down, and now it’s a gorgeous gem bringing more people into the Meatpacking District, and revitalizing an area that was quickly becoming known as only a slick nightlife destination. Here are some pics from my summer stroll on the High Line:
This topic also reminds me of something I learned recently – that Central Park was actually DESIGNED! I had no idea, I thought that the area of the park was just sectoned off and that’s what the topography of Manhattan looked like originally. Well, nooo! It was designed back in the mid-1800’s when people were weary of industrialism and realized that they needed more of a connection to nature. When the grid system was created to organize the streets, this huge parcel of land was reserved for landscaping by the writer Frederick Law Olmsted and the architect Calvert Vaux. They created the natural-looking ponds and lakes, hills and paths as an peaceful escape from urban life. When they dug up enormous rocks they piled them up and created the many rolling hills dotting the landscape. Well done! I would have never known… Hopefully future landscape designers and urban planners can use Central Park and the High Line as examples of maintaining the elements of the past and natural landscape to create organic design.