The Highline is an old, elevated rail line that runs for a mile and a half right through Manhattan. And it was originally a freight line that ran down 10th Ave. And it became known as "Death Avenue" because so many people were run over by the trains that the railroad hired a guy on horseback to run in front, and he became known as the "West Side Cowboy." But even with a cowboy, about one person a month was killed and run over. So they elevated it. They built it 30 ft. in the air, right through the middle of the city. But with the rise of interstate trucking, it was used less and less. And by 1980, the last train rode. It was a train loaded with frozen turkeys -- they say, at Thanksgiving -- from the meatpacking district. And then it was abandoned.
高架线 是一条旧的,高架轨道线 它直通曼哈顿有一英里半长的距离。 它原本是 沿着第十大街的货运线。 它因“死亡大道”而得名 因为许多人被列车压死 以至于铁路局聘请马背上的一个家伙要跑在火车前鸣笛开道, 他就是著名的“西区小子”。 但即使有这样的牛仔, 每月约有一人 还是被压死。 所以他们建了高架轨道。 他们把它建在空中有30英尺高,横跨城市市中。 但随着州际货运的兴起, 高架线被用得越来越少。 到1980年,最后一班列车运行。 据说,在感恩节,那是一辆装有冷冻火鸡的列车-- 从肉类加工区开出。 然后高架线被弃用。
And I live in the neighborhood, and I first read about it in the New York Times, in an article that said it was going to be demolished. And I assumed someone was working to preserve it or save it and I could volunteer, but I realized no one was doing anything. I went to my first community board meeting -- which I'd never been to one before -- and sat next to another guy named Joshua David, who's a travel writer. And at the end of the meeting, we realized we were the only two people that were sort of interested in the project; most people wanted to tear it down. So we exchanged business cards, and we kept calling each other and decided to start this organization, Friends of the High Line. And the goal at first was just saving it from demolition, but then we also wanted to figure out what we could do with it.
我住在附近, 我第一次在纽约时报读到这个, 在一篇文章里说它要被拆除。 我想着有人会行动 去保留或者保护它 我可以志愿, 但我意识到没有人做点事请。 我第一次去了社区委员会会议-- 之前我从没去过-- 邻座的另一个人名叫约书亚·大卫, 他是一名旅行作家。 在会议之后,我意识到 我们是仅有的两个人会对这计划感兴趣; 多数人想要拆除它。 所以我们交换了名片, 我们互通电话 决定开始组成这个组织, 高架线的朋友。 起初目标 仅是保护它不要被拆除, 但后来我们也想搞明白我们可以为此做些什么。
And what first attracted me, or interested me, was this view from the street -- which is this steel structure, sort of rusty, this industrial relic. But when I went up on top, it was a mile and a half of wildflowers running right through the middle of Manhattan with views of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River. And that's really where we started, the idea coalesced around, let's make this a park, and let's have it be sort of inspired by this wildscape.
首先吸引我的或让我感兴趣的 是从这街上看过去的高架线-- 它是这种钢铁结构, 有点生锈, 这种工业建筑遗产。 但当我从上放眼望去, 它是一英里半的野花丛生 直通曼哈顿的市中心 可以看见帝国大厦, 自由女神像和哈得逊河。 这的确就是我们开始要着手的 结合周围的想法就是让我们把这建成一个公园, 让我们把它建成 是受这种野外景致启发的公园。
At the time, there was a lot of opposition. Mayor Giuliani wanted to tear it down. I'm going to fast-forward through a lot of lawsuits and a lot of community engagement. Mayor Bloomberg came in office, he was very supportive, but we still had to make the economic case. This was after 9/11; the city was in tough times. So we commissioned an economic feasibility study to try to make the case. And it turns out, we got those numbers wrong. We thought it would cost 100 million dollars to build. So far it's cost about 150 million. And the main case was, this is going to make good economic sense for the city. So we said over a 20-year time period, the value to the city in increased property values and increased taxes would be about 250 million. That was enough. It really got the city behind it. It turns out we were wrong on that. Now people estimate it's created about a half a billion dollars, or will create about a half a billion dollars, in tax revenues for the city. We did a design competition, selected a design team. We worked with them to really create a design that was inspired by that wildscape. There's three sections.
那时候,还有很多阻力。 朱利亚尼市长想要拆除它。 我会很快面临许多诉讼 和参与许多社区。 布隆伯格市长来到我办公室,他是非常支持的, 但我们还得面对经济问题。 这是在9/11之后; 纽约市处于困难时期。 所以我们委托了一家经济可行性研究 试着做这案例。 结果是,我们得到了错误的数字。 我们原想它会花费1亿美元去建成。 到目前为止,它的成本约为一亿五千万元。 主要是, 这将会为这城市带来好的经济效益。 所以我们说在20年的时间内, 对这城市价值是增加其地产价值 增加税收 会约为两亿五千万美元。 这足够了。这真的得到了它背后的城市价值。 但结果是我们就这方面是错误的。 现在人们估计它创造了约5亿美元, 或者会创造约5亿美元 在城市的税收方面。 我们有了一个设计比赛, 选择了一个设计团队。 我们与他们 受此野外景致的启发而真正创造了一个设计。 共有三个部分。
We opened the fist section in 2009. It's been successful beyond our dreams. Last year we had about two million people, which is about 10 times what we ever estimated. This is one of my favorite features in section one. It's this amphitheater right over 10th Ave. And the first section ends at 20th St. right now. The other thing, it's generated, obviously, a lot of economic value; it's also inspired, I think, a lot of great architecture. There's a point, you can stand here and see buildings by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Shigeru Ban, Neil Denari. And the Whitney is moving downtown and is building their new museum right at the base of the High Line. And this has been designed by Renzo Piano. And they're going to break ground in May.
在2009年我们开放了第一部分。 它远超乎我们的梦想而成功了。 去年约有两百万人, 这比我们曾估计的人数要多出10倍。 在第一部分这是我最喜欢的景致之一。 这是在第十大街的圆形剧场。 目前第一部分截止于第二十大街。 另一件事,很明显,它产生了大量的经济价值; 我想,它也激发了许多伟大的建筑。 在这一点,你能站在这儿 俯视弗兰克·盖里 让·努维尔,坂茂, 尼尔·丹尼瑞的建筑群。 惠特尼艺术博物馆会移到市中心 恰好在在高架线基地建立它们的新博物馆。 这博物馆是由伦佐·皮亚诺设计的。 他们会在今年五月破土动工。
And we've already started construction on section two. This is one of my favorite features, this flyover where you're eight feet off the surface of the High Line, running through a canopy of trees. The High Line used to be covered in billboards, and so we've taken a playful take where, instead of framing advertisements, it's going to frame people in views of the city. This was just installed last month. And then the last section was going to go around the rail yards, which is the largest undeveloped site in Manhattan. And the city has planned -- for better or for worse -- 12 million square-feet of development that the High Line is going to ring around.
我们已经开工建设第二部分。 这也是我最喜欢的景致之一, 这座天桥 离高架线的表面有8英尺 它穿行于一群树木树冠之间。 高架线曾被广告牌覆盖, 所以我们采取俏皮的方法 取代框架广告的是, 它会把人们框架到城市的景观中去。 这是上月才开始安装的。 然后最后一部分是沿着各铁路站场, 它们是曼哈顿最大的未开发的 地方。 纽约市为了更好的或者更糟的城市规划着-- 一千两百万平方英尺的发展 高架线也将环顾左右。
But what really, I think, makes the High Line special is the people. And honestly, even though I love the designs that we were building, I was always frightened that I wouldn't really love it, because I fell in love with that wildscape -- and how could you recreate that magic? But what I found is it's in the people and how they use it that, to me, makes it so special. Just one quick example is I realized right after we opened that there were all these people holding hands on the High Line. And I realized New Yorkers don't hold hands; we just don't do that outside. But you see that happening on the High Line, and I think that's the power that public space can have to transform how people experience their city and interact with each other.
但我想使得高架线的确特别的 是人们。 实话说,尽管我爱我们所建造的设计, 我常常害怕,我不会是真的爱它们, 因为我爱上了这种野外景致-- 我们怎能重新创造这种神奇呢? 但我所发现的 是这里的人们,他们怎么使用这公园 对我而言,才使得这高架线如此特别。 仅一个简单的例子 是我恰好意识到在我们开放公园后 在高架线所有这些人握手了。 我知道纽约人从不握手; 我们只是在外边不会这么做。 但大家看到在高架线上所发生的事, 我想这就是种力量 使得公众空间可以 改变人们体验自己城市的感受 并互动联系在一起。
Thanks.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)