Given the impact of gays on other aspects of design, from fashion to theatre, I’ve often wondered what influence they’ve had on the design of our cities. Often it’s implicit. In one case, it’s explicit:
The not-so-secret gay history of one of New York City’s most revered urban reclamation projects is being revealed in both a new book and discussion.
The High Line, a park built atop an elevated rail structure on Manhattan’s West Side, passes through several
of the city’s neighborhoods which are, or at least were, home to predominately lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) residents. As part of their new book, “High Line: The Inside Story Of New York’s Park in the Sky,” Robert Hammond and Josh David have researched “stories of old Chelsea, legendary Roxy parties, and the adventures they had stumbling through the worlds of art, celebrity, government, design, and entertainment.”
“I think [gayness] is sort of instilled in the whole sensibility of the project in some ways,” Hammond told The Huffington Post. “There’s a sense of otherness, unusualness, weirdness and unlikeliness of the High Line that gives it to a gay connection.”
Hammond also points out that the path
of the High Line itself follows the so-called “gay migration,” from Christopher Street in Greenwich Village all the way up to Hell’s Kitchen, arguably the community’s current hub. “I think gays have a way of appreciating beauty in things others might find appalling,” Hammond noted of the well-noted LGBT ties to urban renewal in both New York and other cities.
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