M&O

 

Stand on the High Line near its southern end, and look to the west toward the Hudson River. You will see a giant construction site covered with steel beams, plywood, backhoes, and other heavy duty equipment. It is all part of the ongoing work to build the new High Line Headquarters and Whitney Museum of American Art.

Follow us after the jump for a construction update and photos.

High Line Green-Up takes place once a year at the start of the growing season. This year, more than 100 volunteers from the greater High Line community dedicated their time and energy to help our gardeners complete this tremendous task. High Line Green-Up began on March 1, and thanks to their hard work and dedication, we completed the job in just under a month.

Follow us after the jump for video, photos, and more.

 

To help our us get through the long, cold, and sometimes wet hours on the High Line this winter, the lovely folks at Swedish company Tretorn have donated several pairs of their warm and rugged rubber boots to our Maintenance & Operations and Administrative staff. According to their web site, "Tretorn celebrates a lifestyle largely lived outside." Whether we're shoveling snow, leading tours, or simply walking the High Line for some fresh air at lunchtime, we couldn't agree more!

In addition to all the shoveling the High Line staff did to keep the park open this weekend, our temporary Maintenance & Operations facility has been moved down to the southern entrance of the High Line, at street level. In order to get ready for the joining of Section 1 to Section 2 (still under construction) the M&O trailers (where our gardeners, maintenance workers, and Rangers house equipment and offices) were moved 10 blocks south, just west of the Gansevoort Stairway.

 

The trailers and containers were crane-lifted off the High Line and loaded onto flatbed trucks that transported everything to their new southern location, where they will rest until construction for the new Whitney Museum begins at Gansevoort and Washington Street, adjacent to the High Line.

 

 

 

Yesterday, the High Line staff celebrated Thanksgiving early with a farewell potluck in honor of our seasonal staff (a sample of the myriad of delicious dishes is pictured above).  High Line gardeners Au'brey Gill, Meg Graham, and Maryanne Stubbs will part from us during the dormant winter months.

 

Today, a new accolade! For the first time, an article about the High Line made it to the "most-emailed" list on the New York Times web site.

The article, called "The High Line: A Railway Out of Manhattan", captures the special atmosphere up on the line – "almost a small town in the air... It even inspires crusty New Yorkers to behave as if they were strolling down Main Street."

As a park visitor explained in the article: "Here people tend to be more friendly...Those same people, you might see them someplace else and, you know," she broke off, raising her eyebrows, "they're kind of stressed."

In preparation for the opening of the park in a few short months, Friends of the High Line currently has SEVEN positions open (with another to be announced shortly). These include several new positions in the Horticulture and Maintenance & Operations departments, in anticipation of the High Line's opening this spring.

The best way to keep in touch with our open positions, news of the park's opening, and other FHL tidbits, is through our e-mail newsletter. Subscribe here.

Friends of the High Line's Deputy Director of Horticulture talks about planting on the High Line, working with Field Operations and Planting Designer Piet Oudolf, and creating a maintenance plan for the new landscape.

Where were you before coming to Friends of the High Line, and what drew you to the High Line project?

I was at the Horticultural Society of New York as the director of a community horticulture program called GreenBranches.  We worked with the community, transitional work crews, and local designers to install, maintain, and program public gardens in underserved neighborhoods around the city.
I was drawn to the High Line as one of the most intriguing projects in urban gardening I could ever imagine. 

What was unique about the landscape that grew on the High Line after the trains stopped running?

It's a fascinating example of how plants just work themselves out.  A diverse mix of grasses, asters, mosses, shrubby colonizers and weed trees gradually took hold in mere inches of railroad ballast mixed with decomposing dust and soil.  Seeds and pollen were deposited on the Line by the train cars that once ran along it, and by birds, wind, and the occasional trespasser.   The plant species that were most adaptable to harsh weather, urban pollution, and total neglect grew into the beautifully-wild space that was the found High Line landscape, as the world went on unknowingly just below.

M&O is a new series of posts attempting to explain some of the  Maintenance and Operations issues we're thinking about for the High Line once it's open. M&O discussions are ongoing, and many details will be finalized in the months leading up to the High Line's opening.