Dezeen Wire: "the High Line has become a tourist-clogged catwalk and a catalyst for some of the most rapid gentrification in New York's history," says author Jeremiah Moss in an article published in the New York Times.

Moss claims that the elevated park that opened in 2009 on an abandoned railway track has become an overcrowded attraction that has prompted a surge of luxury development in the west Manhattan neighbourhood, causing rents to rise and local businesses to struggle.

"Within a few years, the ecosystem disrupted by the High Line will find a new equilibrium," he says, but suggests that local shops, cafes and even galleries will be pushed out to make room for the chain stores and tourist-friendly restaurants favoured by passers-by.

Landscape designers James Corner Field Operations and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro are currently working on the third proposed section of the High Line, which is due to open in spring 2014. See our earlier stories about section one and section two.

See all our stories about the High Line »

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catwalk"- New York Times appeared first on Dezeen.

In her new role, Alemani will be responsible for organising a rotating programme of site-specific installations, public art commissions, collaborations and events in and around the High Line aimed at attracting visitors to the park, which was designed by landscape designers James Corner Field Operations with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

See our previous stories on the High Line park here and all of our features on park and gardens here.

The following text is from Friends of the High Line:

A New Curator for High Line Art

Friends of the High Line is pleased to announce that Cecilia Alemani will be appointed the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator and Director of High Line Art Program. A distinguished independent curator and writer, Cecilia is currently a guest curator for the upcoming Performa 11, and a collaborator on the Frame section at the Frieze Art Fair in London and Frieze Talks series in New York. Cecilia succeeds Lauren Ross, who left the position in June and is now the Nancy E. Meinig Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In this position, Cecilia will lead High Line Art, a program presented by Friends of the High Line that introduces site-specific, temporary public art commissions, collaborations, and events in and around the High Line to the more than two million people who visit the park each year. Cecilia will bring to High Line Art international experience as an independent curator and writer, and a history of curatorial collaborations with museums, foundations, non-profit art organizations, and cultural institutions, including MoMA/PS1, New York; X Initiative, New York; Artists Space, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Tate Modern, London; Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy; and Venice International Film Festival, Venice, Italy.

“After an extensive search, it is clear that Cecilia is the best candidate to lead High Line Art. Cecilia is a thoughtful, forward-thinking curator who will bring an innovative approach to structuring the public art program on the High Line,” said Donald R. Mullen, Jr., the founding supporter of High Line Art and Board member of Friends of the High Line. “I have often said that the High Line is the new museum mile. High Line Art celebrates the park’s role in connecting two neighborhoods that make up the cultural hub of New York City, with the more than 400 galleries and cultural organizations that populate the streets below the park. Cecilia’s curatorial leadership will elevate High Line Art to new level in New York City and the international art world.”

“We are pleased to welcome Cecilia to Friends of the High Line. The rotating series of public art on the High Line is one of the ways we encourage the public to come back to the park again and again. With Cecilia’s vision and experience, High Line Art will expand the opportunities for the public to discover art and performance in ways that are accessible, engaging, and complementary of the High Line itself,” said Robert Hammond, Co-Founder, Friends of the High Line. “Since Joshua David and I founded Friends of the High Line in 1999, we have worked with the art community in the Meatpacking District and West Chelsea to celebrate the High Line. High Line Art builds upon this history now that the park is open.”

About Cecilia Alemani
Cecilia Alemani is an independent curator and writer. From 2009 to 2010, she served as Curatorial Director of X Initiative, New York, a year-long experimental non-profit space where she curated numerous exhibitions including solo shows by Keren Cytter, Luke Fowler, Hans Haacke, Christian Holstad, Derek Jarman, Mika Tajima, Tris Vonna-Michell and Artur Zmijewski. At X Initiative she conceived and organized more than 50 events including performances, panel discussions, symposia, lectures, concerts and screenings. In June, 2009, Cecilia co-founded No Soul For Sale, a festival of independent spaces, non-profit organizations, and artists collectives which took place at X Initiative, and at Tate Modern – Turbine Hall in London in May, 2010 as part of the museum’s tenth anniversary celebration. She has organized numerous exhibitions including The Comfort of Strangers (MoMA/PS1, New York, 2010); boundLES (at numerous venues in the Lower East Side, New York); ONLYCONNECT (Bloomberg Headquarters with Art in General, New York, 2008); and Things Fall Apart All Over Again (Artists Space, New York, 2005). Alemani holds a BA degree in Philosophy from the University of Milan (2001) and an MA in Curatorial Studies (2005) from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

High Line Art
Presented by Friends of the High Line, High Line Art commissions innovative, temporary, and site-specific artworks to provide park visitors with a unique and enriching experience and introduce contemporary artists to a wide audience. Since the program was founded in 2009, High Line Art has commissioned more than ten site-specific installations, including artworks by Kim Beck; Francis Cape; Spencer Finch; Valerie Hegarty; Richard Galpin; Demetrius Oliver; Lisa Sigal and Paul Ramirez Jonas; Joel Sternfeld; Julianne Swartz; Sarah Sze; and Stephen Vitiello, as well as collaborations with Creative Time, Performa, and the Trisha Brown Dance Company. In 2009, High Line Art was awarded first place for Best Show in a Public Space by the International Association of Art Critics. More than six million visitors have come to the High Line since the first section opened in 2009.

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Landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and planting designer Piet Oudolf have completed Section 2 of the High Line, a 1.5 mile-long elevated park on an abandoned railway in New York.

The project spans 22 blocks through the west side of Manhattan and is split into three equal stages, with Section 2 bringing the completed length up to one mile.

Unlike Section one, which was completed in 2009, this second phase includes a stretch of lawn.

A new platform elevated 2.5 metres above the main High Line overlooks a canopy of trees and plants below.

Photographs are by Iwan Baan, apart from where otherwise stated.

See our earlier story on Section 1 of the High Line »

More projects by Diller Scofidio + Renfro on Dezeen »

More landscape architecture on Dezeen »

The following information is from Diller Scofidio + Renfro:

The High Line (Phase II)
Public Park: New York, NY 2011

The High Line, a collaboration between Field Operations, project lead, with Diller Scofidio+ Renfro and Piet Oudolf, is a new 1.5-mile long public park built on an abandoned elevated railroad stretching from the Meatpacking District to the Hudson Rail Yards in Manhattan.

Above photograph is by Barry Munger.

Inspired by the melancholic, unruly beauty of this postindustrial ruin, where nature has reclaimed a once vital piece of urban infrastructure, the new park interprets its inheritance.

It translates the biodiversity that took root after it fell into ruin in a string of site-specific urban microclimates along the stretch of railway that include sunny, shady, wet, dry, windy, and sheltered spaces.

Through a strategy of agri-tecture—part agriculture, part architecture—the High Line surface is digitized into discrete units of paving and planting which are assembled along the 1.5 miles into a variety of gradients from 100% paving to 100% soft, richly vegetated biotopes.

The paving system consists of individual pre-cast concrete planks with open joints to encourage emergent growth like wild grass through cracks in the sidewalk. The long paving units have tapered ends that comb into planting beds creating a textured, “pathless” landscape where the public can meander in unscripted ways.

The park accommodates the wild, the cultivated, the intimate, and the social. Access points are durational experiences designed to prolong the transition from the frenetic pace of city streets to the slow otherworldly landscape above.

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Section 1 of the High Line, a 1.5 mile long park on an abandoned elevated railway, opened earlier this week in New York. Update 26/03/11: section two of the High Line has opened. Update: this project is included in Dezeen Book of Ideas, which is on sale now for £12.

The winning proposal for a competition in 2004, the design is a redevelopment of an abandoned, elevated freight-railway that spans 22 blocks through the west side of Manhattan.

The High Line is designed by landscape designers James Corner Field Operations and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Photographs are by Iwan Baan.

Here's text from James Corner Field Operations:

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James Corner Field Operations led the winning design team for the 2004 international competition in collaboration with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Piet Oudolf  and many other expert specialists for the High Line, an unusual 1.45 mile long, abandoned elevated railway that spans 22 city blocks in between and through buildings and along the west side of Manhattan.

As the lead designer of the High Line, James Corner Field Operations has led all aspects of the project including design (from concept through construction), project management and coordination and construction administration.

Inspired by the melancholic, found beauty of the High Line, where nature has reclaimed a once-vital piece of urban infrastructure, the design team aims to refit this industrial conveyance into a post-industrial instrument of leisure.

By changing the rules of engagement between plant life and pedestrians, our strategy of agri-tecture combines organic and building materials into a blend of changing proportions that accommodates the wild, the cultivated, the intimate, and the hyper-social.

In stark contrast to the speed of Hudson River Park, the singular linear experience of the new High Line landscape is marked by slowness, distraction and an other-worldliness that preserves the strange, wild character of the High Line, yet doesn't underestimate its intended use and popularity as a public space.

This notion underpins the overall strategy the invention of a new paving and planting system that allows for various ratios of hard to soft surface that transition from high use areas (100% hard) to richly vegetated biotopes (100% soft), with a variety of experiential gradients in between.

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