It opened in 2019, but the upper floors have been closed to the public since July 2021. But today, the Vessel would be far better described as a period. When renderings of the Vessel’s design were first released, The New York Times predicted that the structure would form an “exclamation point” at the end of the High Line, an exuberant finale to a peaceful stroll. The mall’s developer paid an estimated $200 million for the structure, likely in the hopes that tourists would wander from the architectural spectacle into Lululemon or Aritzia. Among its many features are several skyscrapers, a mall, and an arts center, but its crown jewel is the Vessel, a 150-foot nest of staircases frequently likened to a honeycomb, gleaming rose gold and leading nowhere but up. Today, it ends in Hudson Yards, the largest private development in the United States. The High Line was abandoned in 1980, then reclaimed as a public walkway in 2009. Only when the trains were moved onto elevated tracks in 1934 did the rail line begin to lose its association with death. Eleventh Avenue in those days was known as “Death Avenue.” The cargo train that cut through the neighborhood was nicknamed “The Butcher,” and many of its victims were children who crossed the tracks to bring dinner to their fathers at work in the factories and meatpacking plants. For nearly a century, freight trains ran directly alongside traffic, carrying food to Lower Manhattan-and killing pedestrians, more than 540 from 1846 to 1910.
New York City’s High Line was not always high. For support and resources, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text 741-741 for the Crisis Text Line. If you are in danger of acting on suicidal thoughts, call 911. If you are having thoughts of suicide, please know that you are not alone.
0 kommentar(er)
