Filed In: travel
the high line
From 1934 to 1980, the High Line was an elevated freight rail line that hauled goods into New York’s meatpacking district. Today, it is a mile long, high concept public park built on the abandoned railroad track with modern landscaping and scattered with public art installations. I was immediately intrigued by the unique juxtaposition of old and new going on with the design like the original steel tracks reused and incorporated into the path, railings restored and given a fresh coat of paint and the modern architectural landscaping along the entire trail.
They also have all these little surprises spread around the park – a paper cup pyramid, a pair of bronze monkeys, small wooden people. It’s called Lilliput and it was the first group exhibition at the High Line when it made it’s debut in April 2012. Inspired by Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, you can find these miniature sculptures in all sorts of unexpected places throughout the park. Finding these treasures was like a fun artistic scavenger hunt!
The High Line also features a number of other public art installations and rotating art exhibits including artist Allen Ruppersberg’s rad You & Me billboard on display during the month of February. Arranged side by side on a grid to cover the entire 25 by 75 foot billboard, Ruppersberg’s colorful trademark posters displayed combinations of the words “you” and “me.” It was amazing how bright the colors were and how it really popped against the grey sky and city skyline.
Beneath the former Nabisco building there is a passage between 15th and 16th Streets that is accented with Spencer Finch’s beautiful stained glass art The River That Flows Both Ways. Inspired by the Hudson River, Finch photographed the river’s surface once every minute for 700 minutes. Each pane of glass was then based on a single pixel point in each photo and chronologically arranged in the tunnel. During our visit, the late afternoon light reflected shades of red and brown and deep greens. It was amazing.
A similar project in Paris, the Promenade Plantée, completed in 1993, provided inspiration for the High Line and has encouraged other cities such as St. Louis, Philadelphia, Jersey City and Chicago to renovate their abandoned railroads. I did a little digging and in Chicago there is a plan to build a trail on an abandoned freight rail line on the city’s Northwest side. Stretching from Ashland Avenue to Ridgeway along Bloomingdale Avenue through four Chicago neighborhoods, the project is still in the early phases of development. For more info, check out The Bloomingdale Trail website.
To find out more about the High Line, visit their website. For upcoming, current or past High Line art projects, check out High Line Art or download their art map.
photo credit kate zitzer
Like on Facebook
Pin to Pinterest
Share on Twitterplaces to go | new york city
New York is such a cool city – full of hip spots and thousands of restaurant choices. I spent a few days there in 2007 and have been dying to go back ever since. We hopped around on Saturday morning through SoHo and Lower Manhattan on a rainy New York day. We stopped in SoHo’s French bistro Balthazar for brunch and I ate the most amazing brioche french toast. We spent the afternoon indoors browsing the Chelsea Market and taking in the contemporary art at the New Museum. The days were gloomy and grey and I love how these photos seem to capture a bit of the grittier side of the city. On Sunday we found our way over to Brooklyn. I wish we would have had more time to explore and I was really hoping to check out the Brooklyn Flea. We ate pies at Grimaldi’s and the clouds cleared long enough for our stroll back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. One of my favorite spots on our trip was the High Line – a park created on what once was an abandoned freight rail that is scattered with public art projects. I’ll be talking more about it in a post next week. Sunday night we dined at tapas restaurant Tertulia in the West Village. As a big group we had the Chef’s Menu – the paella was delicious but the croquetas were my favorite. We stayed two nights in a small modern hotel in SoHo. The location was prefect – we were able to walk and get coffee in the mornings, had tons of options for food and were close to public transportation. New York was as beautiful as I remembered it and it was fun exploring new places, eating our hearts out and pretending to be locals for a few days.
eat tertulia | explore brooklyn | do high line
photo credit kate zitzer
the big apple
We’re off this weekend to visit some friends in New York. I love visiting this city – there is just so much to see and explore. My first time in NYC we went to this delicious little spot called Murray’s Cheese Bar and ate cupcakes at Billy’s Bakery in Chelsea. My girlfriend snagged two tickets to Spring Awakening at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and we dined at The Modern after checking out the exhibits. I spent hours at the Guggenheim Museum. My first trip was pretty incredible. I expect this weekend to be nonstop too. So tell me anything we shouldn’t miss? Markets, restaurants, shops or anything at all you love in New York City? I’d really love to check out the High Line. It’s this public park built on an historic elevated freight rail line on the city’s West Side. Have you heard about it? I’d also like to see New Museum – this place just looks so cool! You can follow our adventures here!
photo solarski
places to go | sedona arizona
We drove into Sedona late at night and woke up to these towering red rocks all around us with names like Cathedral Rock, Steamboat Rock, Chimney Rock and the Mittens. Sedona was a fascinating town and exactly what I imagined the desert looked like. We ate breakfast at The Coffee Pot – a fun kitschy joint that serves 101 “famous” omelets and lunched at Sedona Memories – a recommended local spot with delicious sandwiches. We dined at Cowboy Club for cactus fries, rattlesnake meatballs and prickly pear cactus juice cocktails and ended the trip with tacos at Javelina Cantina. The Red Rock Jeep Tour was intense but really fun! We spent an afternoon visiting some of the local wineries – Javelina Leap, Oak Creek and Page Springs Cellars. With several bottles of wine in hand, we then found our way up Airport Road and took in a beautiful red sunset with a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers. I spent some time browsing the shops in the Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village – I loved the glass sculptures and jewelry at Kuivato Glass Gallery. I was told we had to check out Slide Rock while we were in Sedona. The water was ice cold but it was a thrill going down the “slide.” We hung around afterwards and snapped a ton of photos because the landscape there was incredible! On our last night we found a little spot with some lounge chairs, opened a bottle of wine and took advantage of a sky full of stars.
Other than at Tlaquepaque, I didn’t have a chance to visit any of the art galleries Sedona is known for. I heard Exposures International is a great place to see glass and jewelry and Lanning Gallery for contemporary art.
eat the coffee pot | drink prickly pear margarita | do slide rock
photo credit kate zitzer
places to go | grand canyon
We left Scottsdale and set out toward the Grand Canyon for a night. I loved the drive – red rocks and eternal desert surrounding you, the road stretching out for miles and miles. We stayed at the historic El Tovar Hotel – original architecture dating back to 1905 and beautiful views of the South Rim. We spent the day taking it all in – hiking the trailheads, exploring the canyon viewpoints and snapping hundreds of photos. We ordered pork chops and vegetable pasta at the El Tovar Dining Room and sat in front of a big picture window watching the sky change from day to night. Early the next morning we drove down to Yavapai Point and watched the sun rise. Afterwards we grabbed a quick bite and a coffee at the nearby Bright Angel Lodge and then hopped on a bus to Page, Arizona. From the base of the Glen Canyon Dam, we boarded a raft and headed down the Colorado River for a three hour/15 mile float trip (highly recommended!). We saw tons of wildlife, admired petroglyphs along the canyon walls, ate lunch on the beach and took a very quick and very cold dip in the 52 degrees Colorado River. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the Grand Canyon was so beautiful and inspiring – that place can really change your perspective.
sleep el tovar hotel | do smooth water float trip | see sunrise
