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High Line’s Open Views Soon To Disappear

The High Line has become one of Manhattan’s most popular attractions, offering a unique opportunity to travel above the hub-bub of our city streets and gain a unique perspective on the surrounding cityscape.

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The High Line, from Gansevoort Street (left) to West 30th Street and the Western Railyards (right).

 

GVSHP was an early supporter of the effort to preserve the former elevated freight rail line and turn it into a public park.  One of the most frequent comments we hear about walking the High Line’s one-mile length is how much the experience changes, going from the hemmed in walkway at its northern end, where new construction and old warehouses closely surround the park and keep views and light narrow and limited, to the southern end, where the High Line is bathed in sunlight and afforded broad views across the low-rise Meatpacking District to the east and to the Hudson River to the west.

But thanks to several actions on the part of the City, that’s all about to change.  The southern end of the High Line will soon transform dramatically, as what are now some of the most open and exposed parts of the park will be surrounded on all sides by large new developments.

 

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Like the open views around the southern end of the High Line?  You may want to take them in while you can.

The changes will be particularly dramatic between 13th and 14th Streets, between the Standard Hotel and the “High Line” building at 450 West 14th Street.  Right now this is one of the more unusual parts of the High Line park because to both the north and south you have large buildings which span, cover, and rise directly over the park (the only other place where the High Line is covered by a building is between 15th and 16th Streets, where it goes through the corner of the Chelsea Market building).

 

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The section of the High Line between 13th and 14th Streets, once surrounded by low-rise buildings, will soon be hemmed in on all four sides by large-scale new construction.

While these two tall structures restrict the view from the park to the north and the south, the views to the east and west, across low-rise buildings to the rest of the landmarked Meatpacking District and Greenwich Village to the east and Hudson River park to the west, are wide open.  This makes this section of the High Line, in spite of the unusual incursion of these two buildings to its north and south, feel like one of the most open sections of the park.

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Approved designs for the new glass tower at 437 West 13th Street.  Originally proposed to be about 75 feet higher and considerably larger, it was scaled back after considerable opposition, but the City still allowed it to be about 25% larger than the zoning allows.

 

Soon this will no longer be the case.  Directly to the east of the High Line at 437 West 13th Street work is set to begin upon a 175 ft. tall, glass-walled office tower which will seal off views from this section of the High Line to the east.  To the west, a developer is seeking to build a 199 ft. tall glass tower extending the entire length of the 13th to 14th Street block, which will eliminate much of the view of the river and sky above.  In fact, in the not-too-distant future, standing between 13th Street and 14th Street on the High Line, one will be surrounded on all four sides by glass and concrete high-rises, extending between 175 and 233 feet in the air.

 

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The Standard Hotel.

 

This is not, however, a simple case of “things change.”  The size of these buildings, and the fact that they can even be built upon these sites, is very much the result of particular decisions made by the City.

In the early 2000’s, none of the four above-mentioned buildings had been built, and all four sites were occupied by historic Meatpacking plants, much like the rest of the Meatpacking District. It was around this time that GVSHP proposed and fought for the Gansevoort Market Historic District, which stretched from Chelsea Market in the north to Gansevoort and Horatio Streets on the south, from West Street to Hudson Street, and included all these sites.  While New York State accepted our entire proposal and approved a Gansevoort Market State and National Register Historic District which included all these sites, the City cut out these four sites in question from the historic district they designated, specifically excluding any building which touched, or was located to the west of, the High Line.

 

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The City cut all buildings touching or west of the High Line out of the Gansevoort Market Historic District, not only allowing demolition of historic buildings, but in many cases granting permission for new buildings to be larger than normally allowable.

 

The decision to exclude these sites was not because, by some coincidence, all those buildings were of inferior quality or lesser historic significance than those to the east which the City did designate.  In fact, the buildings in question were some of the most prototypical, and in some cases some of the oldest, meatpacking buildings in the entire district.

 

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Side perspective of planned new development at 437 West 13th Street, looking west from Washington Street.  The High Line is no longer visible, behind the new building.

 

While inclusion in the State and National Register Historic Districts provided incentives for preserving these buildings, City landmark designation would have required Landmarks Preservation Commission approval for changes to any of these sites, likely resulting in the preservation (possibly with modest additions) of the historic buildings.  If they were approved for demolition, it would have required design control over their replacements, and contextual designs to fit in with the historic surroundings.

 

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The former Swift Meatpacking Plant (later Nebraska Meats) at 848 Washington Street.  Though two iterations of a planned 450 foot tall tower were blocked here, it was ultimately demolished to make way for the Standard Hotel.

 

The City chose not to do this, offering developers a free hand in demolishing and redeveloping these sites.  After two attempts to build a 450 ft. tall tower on the site which GVSHP blocked, in 2004 developers knocked down the 1933 Swift Meats building at 848 Washington Street (part of the history-making Swift Meats empire), which was eventually replaced with the Standard Hotel in 2009.  In 2011 the 11-story “High Line Building” was added atop the 4-story 1932 New York Central Building at 450 West 14th Street, which was originally erected in conjunction with the construction of the High Line.

 

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The “High Line” building, constructed atop the former New York Central Building at 450 West 14th Street.

The 1936 Atlas Meats building at 437 west 14th Street was recently demolished, but here the owners were not content to simply knock down the historic building and construct a newer, larger one. They applied for a zoning variance, claiming that the presence of the High Line on a portion of their lot created a “financial hardship,” and asked for permission to build 67% larger than the zoning allowed.  GVSHP fought the variance, and while it was ultimately reduced considerably, the City’s Board of Standards and Appeals still granted them a variance to build 24% larger than the zoning allowed.  So the City not only let them demolish a historic building of the sort which they had deemed historically significant and therefore worthy of preservation elsewhere in the neighborhood, but they let them build a larger replacement than would otherwise have been legally allowed.

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The 1936 Atlas Meats building at 437 West 13th Street, recently demolished to make way for a new glass office tower.  The City originally included it in the Gansevoort Market Historic District, which would have saved the building, but under a directive not to landmark any buildings which touched the High Line, it was eliminated from the district at the last moment.

Lastly, at 40-56 10th Avenue, the owner is currently seeking a similar hardship finding and variance based upon familiar-sounding claims regarding the presence of the High Line, asking for permission to build 34% larger than the zoning allows.  The site has been cleared of several buildings, some of which had been built as early as the 1840’s, but which had been damaged by fire and many years of neglect.  GVSHP is also fighting this variance, which is yet to be heard by the City’s Board of Standards and Appeals.

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Image of the proposed new building at 40-56 Tenth Avenue.  The size and height of the new building will depend upon whether or not the City grants the developer some or all of their requested 34% increase in allowable bulk.

 

The outcome of the variance application will determine how much, if at all, larger the new building will be than the zoning allows.  But thanks to the excision of this area from the Gansevoort Market Historic District by the City, there will undoubtedly be some sort of new building on the site, and the zoning will allow it to be more than large enough to completely block off views to the west from the High Line.

So if you like the openness you can now experience at the southern end of the High Line, enjoy it while you can.  It won’t be around much longer.

8 responses to “High Line’s Open Views Soon To Disappear

  1. I also supported the High Line at the beginning now I am in favor of tearing it down. The yuppies in charge seem to spend most of their time helping developers and real estate barrons rake in the big bucks while they push Quinn for mayor. They have ruined Chelsea, residents are fleeing but their pals Bloomberg and Quinn are happy with them and that is all they seem to care about.

  2. These images of new tall, glass buildings going up next to the High Line are truly horrifying, especially the one proposed for 40-56 Tenth Avenue. I’m glad GVSHP is fighting that variance. Let us know what we can do to support that fight.

  3. Andrew-Do not give up the fight. I agree with the comments above. I have lived in West Chelsea since 1969. This awful what is happening.

    We have to hold Christine Quinn, Amanda Burden, Mayor Bloomberg, Sen Duane accountable. They have all sold us out for campaign contributions from developers.

    They are also are responsible for permitting St. Vincents Hospital to close and become condos.

    A disgracemful legacy for all the above

    And surely a 180 degree turn on Pier 40 won’t be far behind. Can’t afford to maintain it? tear it down and make it a simple park space. Like she did on the Chelsea Market, Christine Quinn will come to us with an announcement of a Victory for the neighborhood buy limiting the size of new housing there to 15 stories (and one floor for the homeless)

  4. Amen to Olinda. Follow the money. Can’t spell asshole without the following letters, developer/politician. Even if the history of NYC has been to tear down and replace the last few years have been unprecedented especially in the west village and Chelsea.

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