High Line Background: West Chelsea/Gallery District

Building use in West Chelsea has transitioned from manufacturing to warehousing to industrial. During the middle of the twentieth century, highways began to replace rail as the preferred method of freight transportation. By the 1960s, large sections of the High Line were already being dismantled with traffic along the railway halted altogether in 1980.

Beginning in the 1960s, the number of large industrial firms headquartered in Manhattan significantly declined. This decline continued into the 1970s as disinvestment decimated the city’s previously thriving manufacturing economy. The effects of the decline stretched to related sectors as well, taking a toll on trucking, warehousing, and wholesaling. By the 1990s, New York could no longer claim to be an “industrial city.” This economic shift led to new uses for the large spaces of the old industrial buildings, one of the more innovative adaptations being nightclubs in West Chelsea.  

The “gritty industrial neighborhood,” as it was described in the New York Times in 1997, began to attract art galleries and related businesses, many which were being priced out of SoHo. Among the attractions for artists of the old industrial buildings were the ground stories featuring wide expanses of column free space, 13-foot ceiling heights, and eight-foot-tall operating windows available in many of the buildings.

Today, West Chelsea remains a thriving district for galleries and art-related businesses, with more than 50 percent of the district’s buildings dedicated to these uses.

New York Central Railroad - Meat Packing District - Eleventh* Avenue & West 12th Street - ca. 1911
Man on horse is a NYCRR Watchman / RR Policeman a/k/a "West Side Cowboy" escorting the locomotive as required by NY City law.
Source: trainweb.com

Source: Gaytravelabout.com

The Meatpacking District now includes retail, galleries, restaurants, and hotels.
Source: Meatpacking District Improvement Association map 5/2/09

Source:

Christopher D. Brazee & Jennifer L. Most, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission "West Chelsea Historic District Designation Report" July 15, 2008

Above & Below

Brian Cronin

Rybczynski, Witold. "Bringing the High Line Back to Earth." New York Times, May 14, 2011: 

Has the High Line caused gentrification?  Who walks above the residents and business owners of the neighborhoods below?  Who are the neighbors and business owners impacted most?

Neighborhood Context Map
Source: thehighline.org

While the High Line has been praised and awarded by urbanists, green enthusiasts, visitors and architects, some criticism has come from its closest neighbors.  Residents and business owners are coping with the influx of tourist traffic, increasing property values, and new upscale development in West Chelsea, the Meat Packing and Gallery districts.

As a public park, the High Line is available to everyone; however, its success has resulted in higher than expected maintenance costs and increased development interest.  For now, Friends of the High Line, the non-profit that manages the park, must raise operating funds privately having abandoned efforts to secure sufficient local support for a business improvement district.  As 2-story walk-ups, auto repair shops, and the last few butchers shops are replaced with luxury hotels, innovative architecture, and fashion retail, the contrast between those above and below the High Line will continue to transition.