Now, Hammond has embarked on a new project: the High Line Network, an organization, which just launched a brand new website. Its aim? To help cities working on their industrial adaptive reuse projects learn from the High Line’s stumbles–and from each other. — Fast Company
In many ways, the High Line has been an undeniable success. Phenomenally popular, it has become one of the leading attractions in New York and has brought about a massive wave of development to the area. The flip side of this however, if not yet obvious, is that the project has also been lodged with complaints of spurring gentrification in the surrounding neighborhoods and has become emblematic of the widening class divide existing in the city.
Many of those involved in its creation have begun to express some remorse over the unintended consequences that have come about from the adaptive reuse project. With new variations on the idea popping up, from Seoul's new Skygarden to MAD's repurposing of dilapidated rail yards in MIlan, Robert Hammond, one of the founders of Friends of the High Line, has embarked on a new project, the High Line Network. The goal of the organization is to create a platform for new infrastructural re-use projects to share information so that they can avoid some of the original's hiccups, with issues surrounding equity taking a main focus. So far, the network is comprised of 19 projects including a Rail Park in Philadelphia, the Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston, and a pedestrian walkway in Washington D.C..
5 Comments
It'll be interesting to see what comes of this. Early in my architecture school days I did a research paper on the High Line, speaking to a few folks at Friends of the High Line, and found them to be passionate, and personally invested into what they were doing. It shows in what we've seen built over that dilapidated Matrix (which wasn't much more than a dumping ground before). Now, the fallout from from their work, although regrettable at some level, couldn't have been unforeseen. It's a pretty common pattern, and I hope something really can be done to curb the negative impacts of, ostensibly, doing things the right way. Tell me, tell the artists that also tend to be harbingers of gentrification, what can we do to prevent developers from capitalizing and gentrifying areas that we (purportedly) improve the cache of, and just let us make places better for everyone?
Ironically, if they had succeeded in making the park attractive to the very low-end demographic, crime and trash problems would have been so bad that it wouldn't have been as successful as it has been.
Fuck the poor amirite.
A simultaneous investment in public housing along and near the high-line would have been smart, and guess what - it's not too late! Maybe if the hot-shot firms who have thrown up luxury condo tower trophies had insisted on a serious mix of inclusionary housing, from the beginning, we'd be seeing a different kind of success today. Leadership from the design community has been woefully lacking, but now would be a good moment for firms like DS+R to develop a social conscience.
If you want a good project for your community don't let egotistical architects get involved. It doesn't take network project to understand this.
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