http://chelseanow.com/cn_88/bridgingthegap.html
Bridging the gap, from Hud. Yds. to the High Line
Extell founder and architect Steven Holl gestures to his firm’s vision of the Hudson Yards during the bidding process in December. The tower seen at the far left of the rendering appears similar to Extell’s plans for a “hybrid tower” seeking to adjoin the High Line.
By Chris Lombardi
May 30 - June 5, 2008
While details of the newly announced Hudson Yards development remain swathed in mystery, one project at the northeast corner of the site is moving forward—and not at the hands of winning bidder The Related Companies.
While financial schemes for the rail yards rise and fall, a project conceived by runner-up yards bidder Extell Development Corp., consisting of a 62-story “hybrid tower” with bridge connectivity to the High Line, recently saw the light of day at the local community board.
On May 19, Board Four’s Chelsea Preservation and Planning Committee got its first look at that bridge, an undulating glass link to the currently under-construction High Line.
Extell co-founder Chris McVoy described the mixed-use tower and bridge in architect’s poetry—which includes residences, office space, a hotel and gallery space—but still had to weather inquiries from the committee about the project’s glass-and-steel design.
The reason for the early glimpse was the building’s proposed connection to the High Line itself, the 1.45-mile former elevated railway stretching from Gansevoort St. and 12th Ave. to 30th St. and 10th Ave., which is now being converted into a public park. Any connection to the former rail line requires consent from the city Department of Transportation, which was the only reason Extell approached Board 4 about the building to be located at 30th St. and 10th Ave. It otherwise fits well within the 2005 Hudson Yards rezoning.
In particular, the new building was designed to complement the much-debated northern section of the High Line, far from the planned new Downtown Whitney Museum and the High Line Ballroom farther south. Built to run freight directly into former warehouses and factories, the line swerves east and loops around the Hudson Yards between 10th and 12th Ave., from 30th to 33rd Streets, in a formation referred to as “the spur.” Now, nearly three decades after trains stopped running, “the line comes out and… just ends,” Peter Mullan, director of planning for Friends of the High Line, told Chelsea Now. “We’d been thinking about what to do there… about having stairs, elevator access to that section of the park.”
Another person with similar thoughts about this portion was Extell founder and architect Steven Holl, whose office sits nearby on W. 30th St., less than a block from the new project. After the last boxcar on the railroad went across 28 years ago, Holl told an audience at Cooper Union in December, he began to sketch possible uses, including one drawing that envisioned apartment houses built atop the line. Now, after the 2005 rezoning, “we see that everything in Chelsea is going to be built up,” Holl said.
Those December remarks were made as Holl and McVoy presented Extell’s bid for the Hudson Yards, a surreal-looking plan that proposed bridge-suspension technology to support eight towers over 15 miles of green space. That plan preserved the “spur,” and proposed a mixed-use tower for the yards’ northeastern point.
A similar tower was already in the works long before Extell’s bid for the yards, Mullan said. He added that Holl had approached Friends of the High Line in early 2007 to propose a direct connection between their new tower and the High Line. At a time when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority was still considering demolition of the northern “spur,” FHL was pleased with a project that embraced the northern end, Mullan said. He worked with McVoy as Extell developed its proposal for a bridge across 10th Ave. to the spur. Mullan was also at McVoy’s side on May 19 as the Extell exec met with the Board 4 committee to explain the bridge.
After recapping his company’s long romance with the High Line,
McVoy began to point to renderings showing the details, including stairs to the High Line and a bridge giving full, second-floor access to the park. While the bridge is made of I-beams, he said, it will have “glass phalanges [and] canopies that dance with the light.” On the first floor, he noted, an outdoor cafe, restaurant and gallery would all be open to the public.
Even the building itself, McVoy added, is shaped in a “sinuous” way that mirrors the twisting route of the High Line. “There’s a great dialogue between them,” he added.
However, the committee expressed two main concerns with the plan: public access and whether the bridge would be contextual with its surroundings.
“It’s great to have a Holl building anchoring the High Line,” committee member Bret Fifer said. “I see the second-floor access to the park. What about first-floor use?”
McVoy responded that that the first floor would act exclusively for the gallery space and lobbies for the residences, office space and hotel. “They’ll feel full of life,” he said.
Fifer persisted, saying that given the High Line’s emphasis on developing second-level space, his concerns were focused more on the ground floor. “What about life on the sidewalk?” he asked. Another board member shook his head, telling Fifer, “Hey, around here if you walk on 30th Street, you take your life and your lungs in your hands. Second-floor access is crucial.”
Others were concerned about the bridge blocking the potential of the spur as a public space. Committee chairperson and former board chairperson Lee Compton said that uses of the space have already been covered. “Now you’re talking about a thoroughfare,” he said. “There’s no question that the High Line is good for the building, but is the building good for the High Line?”
Mullan responded that the spur is the widest piece of the High Line. “We’d envisioned something more programmatically intense for the area,” he said, “but that’s still not impossible.”
McVoy quickly agreed, adding somewhat merrily, “If someone wants to have an event catered by the café, it’s not incompatible!”
The committee’s discussion grew more heated concerning the designs—both of the bridge and the building itself. When reminded that Extell’s building needs no variances and thus little approval, committee member Corey Johnson sighed. “That slab of glass, that needs approval, no?” he asked. “I don’t find it that attractive, I don’t think it’s contextual, I think it’s very clunky.”
McVoy smiled. “Context is being sensitive to the space and the material around it,” he said. “The High Line is an important industrial artifact of its time. We think it’s important to build something that is of our time.”
Mullan then chimed it, saying that the building and bridge “have the potential to make a terrific contribution,” he said. “In terms of proportion, basic strategy, I’m basically supportive of the design, including the glass.”
Other committee members pitched in with their suggestions, to McVoy and Mullan’s evident relief. “I would like the transition move from modernity to something resembling the High Line,” said committee member Eugene Glaberman.
McVoy replied that they were hoping to complement the planned new Whitney Museum further south in the Meatpacking District. “Maybe we can use similar materials,” he added.
“How about using one of the original locomotives as an element?” asked committee member Robert Trentlyon. “I love that idea!” Mullan said.
Ultimately, despite the desire of some members to stall the advance of all that glass, the committee agreed to approve the bridge. They askend, though, that the city and Extell provide public bathrooms, agree on maintenance of the public/private spaces, and consider the possible loss of “programmatic space.”
Asked about the meeting this week, Mullan told Chelsea Now that while people may have concerns about such massive, modernist projects, the Friends of the High Line’s principles are the same as Extell’s. “The High Line is a marvel of its time. Just as with the Guggenheim, we can match it with marvels of our time,” he said. As for the scale, Mullan said it wasn’t much bigger than the other 35 to 50 building projects in what FHL calls “the High Line District.”
In any event, “we will develop the park whether or not the bridge gets built,” Mullan added. “One of the things that’s interesting about the High Line is these spurs,” including the larger one at 30th Street and two to the south. “It has these fingers that essentially reach out into the neighborhoods. So it’s totally appropriate that the neighborhood reach back.”
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Another rendering posted on wirednewyork.com
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