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Parking Day 2008 Video from Streetfilms



Park(ing) Day, one of our favorite yearly public space happenings, takes to the New York City streets this Friday!

This international event transforms metered parking spaces into playgrounds, parks, creative installations, and unusual meeting-grounds for all to hit the pavement and enjoy. Converting car-intended spots throughout the five boroughs, these park(ing) spaces are a great example of  street-space reclaimed. Park(ing) Day's mission doesn't sound too far off from the High Line's reclamation of  space for the public.

Last year the High Line participated in the Park(ing) Day extravaganza, one of 57 spaces across the city. This year, our newly-opened park hovers 30 feet higher than most parking spaces, but encourages you to check out a nearby Park(ing) Day space on ground level. A map and description of all the spots is here.

One of our favorites is right here in the neighborhood.  Weave the Hearts, sponsored by the West Harlem Art Fund and created by Japanese artist Shintaro Tokairin, can be located at 400 W. 14th Street, near 9th Avenue. Tokairin has created a woven installation piece which will encapsulate the space, inviting visitors to relax and indulge in the artistically-inspired parking spot.

Maybe the air thirty feet up does something to people, but the High Line seems to have been attracting some serious love lately. We received word of another proposal on the High Line a few weeks back, when a San Franciscan named Alex came to New York to propose to his girlfriend Priya. No need to worry, those petals were not picked off the High Line. Congratulations to Alex and Priya!

[More hopeless romanticism after the break.]

A new piece of High Line Merchandise, this fantastic canvas and leather High Line logo tote by Charles Nolan, located in the neighborhood at 30 Gansevoort Street.

Today's blog post was guest written by one of our Greeters, Claudia Berger.

One thing is for sure, rain certainly helps the garden grow. The last few weeks of rain has really allowed the Chelsea Grasslands section to flourish. Flowers and other plants of all colors, shapes and sizes have been blooming attracting not only visitors but a variety of butterflies, bees, and birds.

If you visited the park in our first couple of weeks, you may have been told to enter using the Gansevoort access point. This early limited access was part of our strategy to handle the anticipated heavy crowds on the park initially.

You can now enter and exit the park at all access points (Gansevoort stairs, 14th Street stairs, 16th street stairs and elevator, 18th street stairs, and 20th street stairs).

Here's a video from UK-based Wallpaper, featuring Co-Founder Joshua David and lead designer James Corner. It was shot back in April, a couple months before the park opened, and it's amazing how different the landscape looks.

We've created a brand-new Flickr Group, and it's looking a little lonely. We need YOU to cheer up our Pool by adding photos of your High Line visit!

Some of you may have noticed an increase in precipitation over the past month or so. Meteorologists have put it down to the high-altitude jet stream that normally guides the movement of weather across the country being slightly south of its normal position- an explanation that may suffice for those of us willing to settle for a simple, evidently logical answer, but for those looking for a more challenging account of what's going on, the folks over at trainjotting have uncovered a much more sinister explanation.

The Sundeck's lounge chairs are a popular spot for resting and people-watching.

Lisa Switkin is Associate Principal and Lead Designer of the High Line at James Corner Field Operations. She writes today about her initial responses to seeing the High Line's design turned into reality:

"After spending the past five years on the High Line in mostly solitary situations walking the line to familiarize myself with every curve, view and condition or in small groups working through essential design concepts and design and construction details' it is extraordinarily rewarding to finally see it activated and being used and loved by people. Although progress was evident every day as the integrated components of the park came together, I don't think it truly became a reality for me until I was able to stroll up there last Saturday morning as a park user and observer.

"Someone said to me - have you noticed that people have a different pace when they are on the High Line?' This made me smile, as I remember the supportive but skeptical reaction when we first stated our basic mantra of 'Keep it Simple, Keep it Wild, Keep it Slow, and Keep it Quiet' that inspired the design. 'Can you even do that in New York?' was a common response. And yet, it's true; people do have a slower pace and sense of delay when they are on the line. They are suspended in a unique urban condition - both a part of the City and removed from the City at the same time. I hope the magical sense of surprise and bewilderment that the site produces itself, along with the legible and deliberate elongated transitions embedded into the design - from streetside to topside, hard to soft, woodland to grassland, river to city - give people the opportunity to see the City in new and unexpected ways; the familiar and iconic side as well as the up close, textural, and backside of New York City."

More of Lisa's photos after the jump.