07/01/2021
⭐️⭐️⭐️ . I hated it. But according to the , I’m wrong. Actually, according to everyone, I’m wrong. The critics love it.
But I’m not an A-list journalist with a private showing and free cocktails 🍹 to write my review. I’m a guy who read the rules and booked my ‘free’ ticket days ahead for 8pm on a Tuesday, where I could have enjoyed an hour of sunset and golden light for another hour before the stars came out.
But somewhere, buried in the rules, was the stipulation that reservations were only needed from noon to eight, and after eight, the throngs could show up, unregistered, unmasked, unsupervised and unruly.
That’s what I got. A pile of tourists looking and tromping through, basically nothing. Are trees now relegated to Joni Mitchel songs in New York? “Take all the trees, put ‘em in a tree museum”.
The architect is , who the calls a , and on this job his ear👂was , who along with his wife, , more than likely made happen. Fair enough. At least he’s got his ear to the ground on urban renewal.
But if that’s the case, why hire Heatherwick, who, prior to the tourist monstrosity/sculpture (su***de enabler) that is , had built absolutely nothing in the US, and very little in other parts of the world.
Up to this point, most of his work has been theoretical, and not unlike in her early career, only marveled at by academics and people who like dreams on paper. My viewing of a Heatherwick show at the museum a few years back showed me cleverness and whimsy but little in terms of societal integration and people centered architecture on the scale and thought of . Little Island won’t help.
All that said, Heatherwick’s ‘concrete tulip’ structure works much like ’s slender inverted wine glass stems did in the in Wisconsin (photo) many years ago . Don’t tell me Heatherwick didn’t nick that idea!
In any case. It actually works. And rather than just ‘reclaiming land’ (a dubious concept at best, as if the land had somehow been robbed by the sea) and building mountains on it, this technique is sure to be replicated by billionaires the world over who care about the fish below.
This project, just 2.5 acres, clocks in at around $350 million dollars, and maintenance to be handled for 20 years by Diller’s foundation. So yes, it’s a public good, but to what end? And with no real way to make any money (hot dog sales won’t do it) how does it survive?
And that should be the question for all ‘public spaces’ in a capitalist society. The NYT waxes long and hard about these sorts of being the . They cite the in and even the as by wealthy ‘donors’ of , and that’s just how it is they say.
But the real question is, what’s in it for you? The High Line is a perfect example. As real estate values soared because of its ‘re-branding’ of the neighborhood ( ) they struggle to put on any public programs of value or serious depth and inclusion. How has the High Line helped the lifestyles of the NYCHA residents who live in two properties who bookend it? How has it helped the homeless who continue to populate the west side streets, maybe more than before the reface.
All the High Line worries about is how to bring in enough funding to keep it from rusting to the ground.
I know for a fact, that I will love a show in the , Little Island’s lovely and warm 650 wooden seated amphitheater. I will love the west side sunset as it happens. I will love, quite possibly, the best fu***ng view of ever.
But what I didn’t love was yet one more NYC . Are tourists for want of enough things to do here? If we’re busy reclaiming the industrial wreckage of our past, shouldn’t we be reclaiming it for the citizens of our fair city?
Central Park was not built for tourists. It was built for us. is for tourists. Can’t we build one on ? And leave the rest of the city for us.
Let’s see what Little Island becomes.
But right now it’s a noisy, well trodden tourist curiosity. Only tourists need apply. We New Yorkers can wait 😋
