The Arts in New York City
There are many places in New York City where people can go to find beauty and recreation. Of course New York City if known for its magnificent and towering skyscrapers that never cease to amaze me every time I look at them but there are also other places other than skyscrapers and tall buildings which can appeal to people’s senses with their own beauty and design. One such place is called the High Line. This public park that was once an old freight line but now its architecture has been converted into a magnificent park filled with plants and flowers of all sorts, grasses, benches, and walkways. Approaching the park near the 14thstreet entrance, I can see the overpass where the railway is situated as I walk toward the entrance.
When I reach the stairs of the entrance, I enter as if I’m at a station ready to get on a train. And yet when I reach the top of the stairs I’m in a whole new place, a place I thought I wouldn’t find as I walked around the neighborhood. I didn’t realize that a place like this was here, especially after passing many restaurants and nice stores full of clothes. I had the pleasure of seeing the High Line at night and during the day. At night, the place was really beautiful, with the lights from the surrounding areas pouring into the space. During the day, I walked around and saw the water of the Hudson River in the distance.
Like Central Park, the High Line is “as series of manipulations and transformations performed on the nature “saved” by designers” (Koolhaas 23). Here, nature has been transplanted and planned by designers. There’s beautiful flowers and plants everywhere. There’s a view of the Hudson River on one side and the hustle and bustle of the streets on the other.Walking around here, I can definitely understand the flânerie, “the activity of strolling and looking” (Tester) here at the High Line, especially when my friends and I went at night. We spent an hour or two just walking around the place, admiring its beauty. There were colorful plants and trees and leaves everywhere. I wanted to take pictures of all of them. I was transfixed by the spectacle of how beautiful the plants and the buildings surrounding the place were. I would really like to go back there when the weather is much nicer and warmer so I could see the flowers in full bloom and sit on a bench and just absorb the surroundings. I can also understand when Tester quotes Baudelaire saying, “The man who loves to lose himself in a crowd enjoys feverish delights that the egoist locked up in himself as in a box, and the slothful man like a mollusk in his shell, will be eternally deprived of” (Tester 2). I would have never experienced the beauty of the High Line if I did not actually go there. A picture is worth a thousand words, but I feel that the actually feeling of being there is different. I appreciate the park more for what it does when I was there; this natural beauty is able to exist with in the concrete jungle of New York City, which I think is great, since sometimes I am jaded by the tall typical buildings of the city.
One thing I really like about the park is how they incorporated the railway into the natural beauty of the park. The plants grow with in it and on the tracks which sort of reminds me of the country when the unused tracks are overrun with grass. This element brings a sense of wildness amidst the backdrop of the city. It’s like the concrete jungle meets Mother Nature. It was inventive to use a structure so ubiquitous in New York City as a place where nature can thrive and be seen.
Another thing I liked is how they used the tracks in an interesting way. They put some of the wooden chair benches on wheels that were placed on the actual tracks and could move. I thought that was cool how they used an existing structure to make such a cool object that fits in with the ambiance of the park to remind us that this actually was once a railway.
Another thing I also noticed while walking through the High Line were the benches. All of them seem to slope downwards at the end. It reminds me of how trains slope downwards when heading from higher to lower ground and how sometimes they must slope downwards to reach tunnels.
These wooden benches and the other wooden chairs and the stone where some of the plants lay also seem to emphasize the natural element of the park with in the frame work of a metal station and railways. It’s like a reflection of the city. Nature in the city is surrounded by the outer framework of concrete and metal buildings. Still, there is a unique beauty in that; such beautiful natural “wild” places can exist within that metal framework. It’s nice to have a natural element in a city full of towers and metal and cars, even if that means that nature had to be “transplanted” in.
Another place where people can go to reflect and find beauty is at the World Trade Center Memorial. Here, where the Twin Towers once stood, are two pools. These large pools have waterfalls that cascade down the sides into a center hole.
Around each pool are the carved names of people lost during September 11. It is very solemn and reflective place as we remember the tragic events that happened that day and the loved ones that we have lost.
These two pools, in place of the North and South towers, are sort of the opposite of the structures that are usually built in New York City. Usually we build upwards, making towers and skyscrapers that soar into the sky. From the height of what once was the World Trade Center, according to Certeau, we are “lifted out of the city’s grasp. One’s body is no longer clasped by the street that turn and return to it…” (128). We think of skyscrapers as placing ourselves above the hustle and bustle of the street, bringing us to new heights and bringing us new perspectives. However, I believe it’s not just skyscrapers can bring us different perspectives; these two pools bring us a new perspective as well. We stand at a height were we are also looking down, though not from a building, but from the ground looking down at the waterfalls fall into the center of the square. We see that there can be beauty in something other than a skyscraper. Looking at the pools we can reflect and meditate about our lives. In a way, the natural beauty of the cascading waterfalls frees us, if only for a moment, from the hectic hustle and bustle of city life.
Much more common to the scene of New York City, are the buildings surrounding the memorial pools. They tower over us and soar high in the sky. They are magnificent in height and sometimes I am in awe at how wonderfully tall these buildings are. Together, these buildings show the typical structures that are seen throughout the city while the pools offer a nice contrast to the metal framework of the city by offering space that includes the natural element of water.
What I believe that these two places have in common is that they both use natural elements within the context of New York City, which is the concrete jungle. The High Line uses plants and trees in a space were railroad tracks can be seen while the World Trade Memorial uses water in a space that once contained two buildings. These places both utilize areas that are ubiquitous spots in New York City. The High Line is in a place of a historic freight line while the World Trade Center Memorial is a site of the famous Twin Towers. Both these places are spaces that can be viewed as very beautiful. I know that I found the foliage at the High Ling very beautiful while I also found the reflecting pools at the World Trade Memorial site to be beautiful. For me, I think part of the beauty lies not only in the delightful experience that I have, but also that these two sites are able to exist in spaces of the city that are so occupied by metal skyscrapers, concrete buildings, and busy, noisy cars. It’s wonderful that while the city has the skyscrapers and buildings that we love to see, there are also some spaces were there is an element of natural beauty within the metal framework of the city that’s different from what we are typically used to seeing.
All these elements call us to be a spectator to the things that are in the city, like the flaneur, who is “the secret spectator of the spectacle of the spaces and places of the city” (Tester 7). We should partake in the places and areas that the city has to offer. We cannot be closed off to the world, rather we should explore what is right in front of us. We should experience the sights and sounds, the delights and joys of the city. After all, we do live in the greatest city in the world, why not take advantage of it?
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