Chelsea, Tenth Avenue Between 24th and 23rd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

The next block is very different.  For one thing, instead of street level tenants like 10th Avenue Pizza and the former Joe's Tavern Bar, the tenants here are the U.S. Postal Service and Chase Bank.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………....….. click to enlarge


For another, the building is way taller.  This is London Terrace, begun in 1929, partly completed in 1930, and covering an entire city block, from 23rd to 24th Streets and Ninth to Tenth Avenues.  This photo shows one of the corner towers.  At the time it was built, it was the largest apartment building in the world. 

I recommend you follow the above link to London Terrace as it gives some history and historical photographs.  Henry Mandel was the developer, "the Donald Trump of his day," but the Great Depression did him in and he killed himself by jumping off his building.

See map.

Chelsea, Tenth Avenue at 25th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

We've finally turned off 25th Street onto Tenth Avenue.  This whole block is low rise; the building on the far right is the tallest on the block.

If you enlarge this, you can see what look like fire escapes except there's no way to escape.  There's no ladder, and on greater enlargement, there's no indication there ever was one.  So what are they?  You have to climb out of a window to get to them so you can't call them, uh, terraces, balconies.  Another Manhattan mystery.

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The High Line, Tenth Avenue at 20th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge

We've come to the end of this walk. I'm shooting through the gate that closes off the next section, which goes to 30th Street. It's supposed to be ready next year.

You know Bill Cunningham who does the "On the Street" section in the New York Times? You know, where he notices something in fashion and shoots many examples of it – like hats or everybody's wearing black and white? Well, he went to the High Line and took a lot of shots and has this wonderful commentary. You need to watch it. It'll make you happy.

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The High Line, Washington Street/Tenth Avenue Between Gansevoort and 20th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


I think this is my favorite photograph from up here.

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The High Line, Washington Street/Tenth Avenue Between Gansevoort and 20th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………….. click to enlarge

One of the pleasures of being on the High Line is getting a different view of things. This is the Gehry designed office building for IAC, about which you will hear more when I get there.



Mary Sargent © 2009 ……….. click to enlarge

This is 18th Street.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

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The High Line, Washington Street/Tenth Avenue Between Gansevoort and 20th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

We're on the outside looking into a sort of amphitheater in which people can sit and gaze out at the . . . traffic. Pretty funny. Don't worry about the little girl who seems about to tumble over the edge. A thick pane of glass is holding her in.

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The High Line, Tenth Avenue Between 15th and 16th Streets

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Tonight my internet connection is back and so I can once again post. Do you notice how calm I am? Yes, I am calm even though I lost not only the internet, but my phone. The DSL folks sent out a DSL technician today who restored my vital connections and told me it all happened because of the rain. Meanwhile, my TV (cable) is doing fine. I'm just sayin . . .



Mary Sargent © 2009 ………….. click to enlarge


What we have here is a piece of art by Spencer Finch, commissioned for the High Line. It is a conceptual piece. This is conceptual artist Sol LeWitt's definition of conceptual art:

In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.

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LeWitt's pieces are executed by people other than himself because they have only to follow his directions to give form to his concept.

Finch had the idea of taking a photograph of the surface of the Hudson River every minute for 700 consecutive minutes, then extracting one pixel from each photo, reproducing them on color film and then laminating the film on 700 panes of glass. If this interests you, Art In America has a pretty good critical piece on it.

Here is a portion of the statement from Creative Time, one of the sponsors of the piece:

Inspired by the light and the water of the Hudson River, The River that Flows Both Ways will transform an existing series of windows with 700 individually crafted panes of glass representing the water conditions on the Hudson River over a period of 700 minutes on a single day. The installation will be placed in a semi-enclosed former loading dock where the High Line runs through the Chelsea Market building, between 15th and 16th Streets, viewable from the street and on the High Line. The work links the movement of the river, viewable from the site, with the historic movement of the railway and the atmospheric conditions of its location on Manhattan’s West Side. The piece, with its varied levels of color, translucency, and reflectivity, addresses the impossible search for the color of water.

The title of this work comes from the original Native American word for the Hudson River, Muhheakantuck, which means “the river that flows both ways.” This flow in two directions is analogous to the way both water and glass work optically, as both windows and mirrors, allowing a view into depth as well as a reflection of the surrounding environment.

There you have it.

The High Line, Washington Street/Tenth Avenue Between Gansevoort and 20th Street

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Mary Sargent © 2009 ……... click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

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I realize that I've been talking about the High Line as though everyone knows what it is, but it's entirely possible you don't know even if you live in New York. So let's start at the beginning.

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In the beginning, say 1851, a railroad ran on the streets of New York, creating such peril for street traffic that 10th Avenue came to be nicknamed Death Avenue. And so it came to be that in 1929 (before or after the crash?) the City and State of New York and the New York Central Railroad agreed to the West Side Improvement Project, which included the High Line and added 32 acres to Riverside Park.

The High Line ran from 34th Street to Spring Street and was designed to go down the center of blocks rather than over the avenue to keep things tidy. Imagine. It ran through factories and warehouses and so could pick up and deliver freight without setting foot in the street. And we think we're so smart.

But, alas, the feds built the interstates in the 50's and trucking became competitive with freight trains, causing a drop in rail traffic. In 1980 the last train ran on the High Line carrying three cars of frozen turkeys. What an ignominious end.

The High Line was abandoned and as the months and years went by, nature took over. Wild grasses grew, and flowers. It was becoming a meadow. A few people noticed. They probably snuck up there. They thought it was way cool. Wow, this would make an awesome park, they probably said to themselves.

Oh, I forgot to say that in the 60's the southern part was demolished, whether all the way to Gansevoort or not, I don't know.

So then some people wanted it torn down, including Mayor Guiliani, and others fought to keep it. Friends of the High Line was formed.

Friends of the High Line won. A miracle.

The photos above show how the landscaping keeps elements of the High Line's abandonment period.

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The High Line, Tenth Avenue Between Gansevoort and 20th Street

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Mary Sargent © 2009 ……...............................….. click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 ……….. click to enlarge

We're up in the High Line now and everyone looks right at home. I was reminded of my cats when I saw these people on the benches. It's like when a box is delivered to me and it's there on the floor, they take one look and jump on it and settle down. Nice, a new place to lie on, they say to themselves.

I was going to go into the story of the High Line tonight, but if you'll look at what time it is, you'll understand when I say I'm just going to recommend you go to the High Line Images and Video website. It has historical photos showing trains running in the street before the High Line was built, and it shows it being built and then being used. Then there are contemporary photographs showing it overgrown with grasses and wild flowers. And more. Well worth taking a look.
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I'll have more to say tomorrow. For now, I still have to put sheets on my bed.

Inwood, Tenth Avenue Between 207th and 206th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

If you scroll down to last night's post, you'll see the bottom corner of this ambitious mural, looking down from the subway stairs. Now I'm on the street, looking up.

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Inwood, Tenth Avenue from the 207th Street Subway Stairs

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Color promised and delivered. This is taken from the elevated subway stop at 207th Street.

This walk had to be brief so I took the subway one stop, walked the length of Post Avenue (3½ blocks) and came on home.

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Tenth Avenue Between 205th and 204th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Hm. Does anyone know if these chickens taste better?

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Inwood, 215th Street Subway Stop

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This morning, it was like this: I was out of current photographs and had to get some today. I had had X-treme insomnia last night and was semi-comotose, longing for my bed. But here I was at the subway stop, on my way to work, toting my camera, staring blearily across the tracks. I managed to focus (my eyes) and there it was: my photograph for tonight.

Now all I had to do was get through the day.

Note: you won't see what I saw unless you enlarge it.

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Hell's Kitchen, Tenth Avenue Between 34th and 33rd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Twenty years ago, our hero would have been standing here, looking moodily into the distance with a cigarette in his mouth. Now it's a cell phone. There's just no romance anymore.

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Inwood, Tenth Avenue Between 202nd and 203rd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . click to enlarge

And now, back to the waking world. This was one of several arresting sights I saw walking up Tenth Avenue on my way home from my Labor Day walk.

Another was a small live chicken shop where they slaughter them to order and maybe also sell them live if you want to do your own slaughtering. One of the guys came out when he saw me with my camera and wagged his finger at me, no.

Inwood, Tenth Avenue at 212th Street

Mary Sargent © 2006

The preceding 5 photographs were taken over a week ago on Saturday, July 29th. I went out the next day because, according to my map, there is no 214th Street. Did I imagine it? No, 214th Street is right there where it should be, and it appears to have been there a long time. I’m not going to show you a photo of the sign. In terms of map time, I picked up only a tiny corner of Tenth Avenue at Post Street, but in terms of photographs, another story.

The sign on the blue building reads #117 Fashion. I keep reading it as Fascism.

Inwood, Tenth Avenue at 214th Street

Mary Sargent © 2006

Last weekend I walked around on the Eastern side of my neighborhood, Tenth Avenue and down Sherman to Broadway and back up Broadway. Sherman runs parallel to Broadway, but then ends at Broadway where it curves around. This was Saturday’s walk. Starting at Dyckman (200th Street), the subway runs above ground along Tenth Avenue and then up Broadway where Tenth Avenue joins Broadway around 218th Street. This photograph is taken from under the elevated subway tracks looking West. As you will see in the following photos, this area is very blue.

Apologies for all this map talk. I can’t help myself. Just don’t get me started on the saga of Tenth Avenue.