Exploring the High Line park

The High Line deserves all the superlatives which have been thrown its way this year. Manhattan’s newest urban park, it’s an old elevated rail track which currently is open to the public from 14^th-20^th Street.

Filed with daisies, perennials, drifting grasses and shrubby bushes, the planting was inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the out-of-use elevated rail tracks.

There are benches made from sleepers, a walkway inspired by the tracks, and wonderful views down the side streets and toward the Empire State Building to the north

and the Hudson River and New Jersey to the west.

Calvin Klein threw the most extraordinary party up there for the label’s 40^th anniversary during the SS09 collections last September. The High Line was still six months from opening to the public, with no stairs built to access it, so John Pawson was commissioned to build a spectacular stepped entrance venue to take guests upward from the street to the High Line. It cost over $1 million and was pulled down the next day (with the materials going to philanthropic projects in the city). There was also a site-specific installation by James Turrell in the building.

As we walked out on to the High Line that night, we were arrested by the smell of roses: the track had been planted with thousands of white roses and other scented flowers, with lanterns and tea lights strategically placed, glowing in the dusk. It was a truly amazing night.

Every editor and celebrity you could think of, all milling about under the sky, and then getting down on the dance floor in the Pawson building. I was dancing barefoot by the end, Champagne in hand and crippled by my borrowed & beautiful Celine shoes.

The rest of my photos of The High Line are on my Flickr. Just click on any image to take you there.