10 Hudson Yards from the High Line

Given what's going on in the world right now, let's use this entry to do something we maybe once took for granted: meander aimlessly and think about buildings. A late winter's stroll along the High Line by Hudson Yards...^A

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The blinding reflections of Hudson Yards as seen from the High Line. Photo by author.

A decade in, the High Line's winding path through Chelsea has churned the city around it. The course charted by this neighborhood pet project has long since washed away in the current of its architectural wonder. Pockets of unperturbed urbanism persevere, but anything sellable has sold. Today, a random array of architectural strata spell out the gentrification at play.^B At times, buildings from the park's previous life as train tracks confront it with junkspace and blank walls.^C,D But in times since, windows have grown, and even the occasional balcony replaces the makeshift patio of fire escapes.^E The list of starchitects who have taken commissions in the area promises marketable contemporary lifestyles — even if at the cost of contemporaneous livelihood.^F Rent staggers around the world, and the High Line brings Thomas Heatherwick when humbler housing seems more suitable.^G The grassroots park, though its own operations remain above ground, no longer takes the high road; street level has come up to meet it. The marvel that the Friends of the High Line, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, James Corner Field Operations and Piet Oudolf made faces a fork.^H

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A roof garden beside bricked-in windows. Photo by author.

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Mechanical equipment for old houses. Photo by author.

^D

Industrial cum chic. Photo by author.

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The building on the left borrows the vocabulary of the vernacular, but remains significantly marked up. Photo by author.

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The park will return to its full glory shortly. We apologize for the inconvenience. Photo by author.

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Heatherwick's residentiral towers that straddle beneath the High Line. Photo by author.

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Bench at the intersection of the High Line with Hudson Yards. Photo by author.

Should we choose to enter Hudson Yards, our first encounter will be DS+R's Shed.^I DS+R softens the transition from their park of the people to the bigness of the development with a movable museum. The building's footprint can double at leisure by means of a rolling superstructure.^J On today's stroll, the Shed sits rolled out, but remains closed. Entry to the museum is found at the street-level lobby. Ushered across a chic cocktail lounge (and a tiny, after thought of a bookstore), visitors board the grand escalator to the galleries above.^K The exhibition on display — a retrospective on Agnes Denes designed by New Affiliates¹ — checks off a number of boxes, as cynical a vantage as that might be. Provocative contemporary art (by a woman, no less)? Check. Moments for the 'gram? Check.^L Cultural credit presented by corporations? Check. A thoughtfully curated, well designed exhibition? Check.^M

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The Shed in its extended position. Photo by author.

^J

The wheel that rolls out the impromptu space. Given the commercialization of everyhting here, the name seems too apt. Photo by author.

^K

Coffered ceiling with donor names in the lobby of the Shed. Photo by author.

¹ While I would normally consider an entry on the exhibition itself, I had the good fortune to hear Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb speak at the Corcoran. Their discussion was good enough for me.

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Everyone who entered the gallery took this photo. Photo by author.

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Denes' linework is impeccable. Photo by author.

The star of Hudson Yards' show, try as the Shed might, is Heatherwick's Vessel:^N an accessible, architectural sculpture that doubles down on Hudson Yards' mediation of contemporary culture and its capital counterpart.^O Though the Vessel pales in comparison to the skyscrapers around it, its overhanging flights keep it in view whenever a sightseer gapes upward.^P Visitors who book tickets in advance queue at its base for their turn to ascend — paying customers can come any time. A lack of foresight and hesitance to pay more into Hudson Yards leaves our stroll as a fox without grapes. No matter, as all the interior provides is a facsimile of Chand Baori and a view of New Jersey offered elsewhere in the development. But those with Instagram accounts likely hold differing views.

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The Vessel as it pokes out from behind the extended Shed. Photo by author.

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The central plaza of the complex. Photo by author.

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Various views up. Photo by author.

The final piece of the public domain confronts the Vessel with five stories of glass: the Shops.^Q America is no stranger to the mall, but the American mall is typically a nostalgic typology: a mat building that sprawls the suburbs with this and that store tucked here or there. Hudson Yards imports its mall from those more often seen in Asia, where the typology takes on a luxurious form. Atriums cut through not-too-many stories, revealing a hierarchy of brands.^R Hudson Yards' Shops are not the postmodern paradigm of consumerism; they are the contemporary equivalent for neoliberalism. The Shops adds to the ploys of the Shed and Vessel:^S yet-to-be-leased storefronts display art installations on what would otherwise be only advertising. It seems better than the alternative, but it feels more insidious. Like visitors to Lara Schnitger's I Was Here, located conveniently on the south side of level three, the whole thing easily rubs the wrong way.

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Note that the entry to the Shops visible here is on level with the High Line. As cars drop off and pick up shoppers, the High Line is no longer so high. Photo by author.

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Interior atrium space with its angled escalators. Photo by author.

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View back out to the complex from the Shops — you can get the same view as from the Vessel with none of the wait, though granted there are some mullions. Photo by author.

Should we continue down the High Line, however, we end up across what remains exposed of the train depot from which the development takes its name. Standing under Daniel Buren's Les Guirlandes — one of numerous commissions along the High Line's length for the 2019–2020 season, titled En Plein Air — a visitor might see similarities between the distant shiny shapes and the rugged railroad they walk. Its language repurposed, the High Line reflects on itself.^T

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Hudson Yards as seen from the terminus of the High Line. Photo by author.