New Designs Unveiled for Manhattan's High Line Park

The abandoned elevated railway on Manhattan's West Side is a few steps closer to being developed into a public park.

City Commits $51 Million to Park

Backed by a commitment of $50.8 million in city funds, the West Side's unused 1.5-mi.-long elevated railway known as the High Line is on its way to becoming one of New York City's most unusual public spaces. Pending planning approvals, the High Line will become a public "greenway" extending from the Meatpacking District to 34th Street between 10th and 11th avenues.

The architectural team of Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro - picked by the city and the nonprofit Friends of the High Line last fall - recently released preliminary designs for the full railway-to-promenade conversion as well as more detailed designs on the first section between Gansevoort and 15th streets. A major aspect of the project is "agri-tecture" - an integration of existing plant species with a flexible and unobtrusive walkway.

The designs, on view at the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown Manhattan until July 18, detail various hard-surface pathways that are 8 to 15 ft. wide and range from sunken pits to bridges. Other features include a flyover above a small forest and paths that wind through several types of flora, such as the woodland thicket and wetland that took over the High Line after train traffic stopped in 1980. The plans also include elevators for the disabled, meeting spaces, a sundeck, a vegeral balcony, and semi-private seating alcoves. The design team intends to preserve the underlying 1930s steel girders punched with hand-driven rivets.

The nonprofit plans to break ground by the end of the year. The first section of the park is scheduled to open to the public in 2007.

Designs Unveiled for WTC Cultural Center

The new cultural center at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan will have up to 250,000 sq. ft. of space under a schematic design recently released by the Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. expects the design development phase for the World Trade Center Cultural Center to be complete this year, with a groundbreaking slated for 2007 and completion in 2009.

The architects are coordinating with the LMDC and the two institutions that will be primary users of the space - the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center - in order to determine programming needs for the facility. Along with the two institutions, the building will house the site-wide visitor center and will have spaces to host events such as the Tribeca Film Festival and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. According to the LMDC, Snøhetta held bi-weekly design workshops over several months with the user organizations.

The schematic design calls for placing the main interior building portions above ground while allowing access to a proposed World Trade Center memorial below. The design envisions five double-height floors with a landscaped rooftop that would overlook Memorial Plaza.

The design places the drawing museum at the north end on the lower floors and the other institution - a museum and educational center focused on human freedom - on the southern end in the rest of the building. The visitor center, meanwhile, will be located at street level.

The World Trade site will also house the Frank Gehry-designed Performing Arts Center, the future home of the Signature Theatre Company and the Joyce International Dance Center. The schematic design for that facility is expected to be complete early next year.

N.Y.C. Housing Hires Design Consultants

The New York City Housing Authority has tapped Parsons Brinckerhoff to provide detailed engineering and architectural assessments for the long-term rehabilitation and replacement of more than 2,400 buildings in all five boroughs.

Parsons Brinckerhoff's surveys, expected to be conducted over five years, will involve inspections of various building components, including exterior and interior architectural systems, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, lighting, fire alarms, and landscaping.

Scarano Architects of Brooklyn, meanwhile, recently started on a new assignment for the housing authority to design parts of the rehabilitation for Ingersoll Whitman Houses. The 35-building development between Myrtle and Park avenues in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn has approximately 4,500 units.

The assignment calls for comprehensive renovations and upgrades to elevator systems in 27 six-story buildings. The work includes extending the current elevator lines, which only go to the fifth floor, to the sixth. Anthony Gennaro and the MEP engineering firm Simon Schwartz & Associates are partners with Scarano on the assignment.

The authority's 2,694 apartment buildings house more than 175,000 low- and moderate-income families, as well as community centers and commercial facilities.