19 Sept 2011

Have a nice flight Johny...


Just this, nothing else to add. One of the best Romanian artists. Gone too. What will remain of us?

16 Sept 2011

The high line is...high










     If I would ever think of  a real space for pedestrians (and just pedestrians), I would defenetly say  THE HIGH LINE, in Manhattan, NY. And yes, this is one of the places I would like to see when in The big Apple.
     What I didn't know is that this place was created in the 1930's, and was part of an infrastructure that should have kept trains away from the industrial district of Manhattan. Another thing is that any train hasn't passed through there since 1980. It is a short life for a train line, is it? Since 1990, the city of  NY is trying to preserve it and this is the project it came up to for it: a suspended 1.5 mile public park, involving the old railway.
    The project came to life thanks to  landscape architects James Corner Field Operations, and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and I must say they did a great job. They've started working on it in 2006 and this year, in June, they have opened  the second section of the park to the public , revealing  the very inspirational blending between the old high-line and the new perspective upon landscaping. Everything is extremely simple and well done, combining materials like concrete pathways and large planted spaces, combined with seating areas. I bet that from it's opening, it has became the perfect meeting point for most of the Manhattan residents and for the tourists too. It is true that it doesn't have the image of an usual park, it seems to me that it has the aspect of a path from a part of the city from another, but in the same time it creates places where you can halt and contemplate the city from above. Well,not from very "above".
  

   Dreaming of holiday in Manhattan, I wish you a great weekend, and don't forget about all the events happening in our little European town, beginning with the grande reopening of Grigore Antipa Museum and the last days of George Enescu Festival ( which is great, I must say) and the great event happening on the STRADA DE C'ARTE, near the Central University Library.

photos from http://www.dezeen.com/

http://www.thehighline.org/