People will be blown out of the park!
While I like the idea of the raised park, I doubt it could even be feasible to make it safe having a park 7-8 stories in the air. The renderings in the pictures above for the NYC park look like they are about 1 or 2 stories high at most.
actually the NYC project uses a disused section of elevated railway, not roadway.
but it is basically the same idea.
The High Line wasn't a roadway. It was an elevated train track. The remaining sections form a level surface -- there is no incline -- so walking it is like walking down a city street. It is nestled among Manhattan's buildings, so people walking on it aren't buffeted by high winds. It is actually a very pedestrian-friendly structure and it allows folks an alternative to walking the car-congested city streets. Buffalo's skyway is a much larger and higher structure that overwhelms and intrudes upon the landscape.
The important lesson of the High Line is that the City of New York conducted a world-wide competition that invited ideas for reuse. Buffalo would be well-advised to open the doors to it's challenges and let a world audience provide new concepts for it's future.
The unfortunate thing is that Higgins and the DOT have all but scrapped plans to retire the skyway from auto use by making sure that we're one of the few stupid cities building a new highway on our waterfront.
The keyword in the story was "unused." Whether we like it or not at this point the skyway is a vital traffic corridor and as Townline said there is no plan to remove it from use.
Since you're comparing apples to oranges, this whole post is ridiculous. As mentioned previously, the project in Manhattan was an unused rail bridge which was not particulary high off the ground. The Skyway is quite high and, last time I checked, was pretty full of cars and trucks.
Second, if we could convince the politicians to no longer allow traffic on the Skyway, wouldn't we just tear it down? Why would we turn it into a park or something? Isn't the whole argument against the Skyway that it is an ugly scar on the skyline of the city and an eyesore which hangs over our new Canalside development?
@MEC is right about the height of NYC's "High-Line", it's about 2 stories high. It's still pretty neat, and a good example of how to turn nothing into something fairly cost effectively. That wind would really whip up there, maybe some glass walls would help? Off course this all defeats the purpose of getting rid of it in the first place, being an eyesore from the ground. Personally I think they should make it a enormous hanging garden underneath - that thing would be a world wonder in no time.
As someone who has worked on several projects reusing old rail infrastructure, I've been following the progress of the High Line for a few years now. I agree with PaulBuffalo about the importance of the design competition, which in my view really advanced the project from what many saw as loony to capturing the public's - and decision makers' - imagination of what was possible and how to really maximize the impact and benefit of the project. What especially got my attention was that the project attracted ideas for cool developments adjacent, including a significant art gallery interested in locating at one end and integrating its facility with the High Line.
I've always thought Tim's idea was cool, and it captures the imagination with its potential if something like it came about. I have issues with some of the specifics - for example, not pruning way back the footprint of the bridge pylons, since their massive footprint is one of the things that gives the Skyway its oppressive impact on the waterfront, and you simply don't need to retain and maintain so much for a promenade as for a superhighway - but a design competition would help sort out those elements.
The other thing about the High Line is that it links things - as PB says folks can get on and off from city streets, and many of the adjacent buildings will develop High Line-level entrances. In my mind, a Skyway-turned-promenade would need to have some connections (e.g. a link to an upper level of Bass Pro is a possibility that comes to mind) in order to make the investment worthwhile.
Of course it's all academic if - as others have pointed out - the Skyway stays in use for autos and trucks!
I thought one of the big points against keeping the Skyway is the recurring maintenance costs. But this idea would keep those costs going. We have plenty of potential park land opening up on the outer harbor, so this idea seems eccentric but unnecessary and infeasible.
One of the nature shows I watched a few weeks ago showed a similar concept used in Austria. They have bridges over their highways that look like regular overpasses but there's grass on top instead of a road. Their purpose is different, however. Areas of Austria that are booming have been disastrous for deer and other animals and these bridges allow them to move from habitat to habitat without becoming roadkill.
I totally agree with most of the comments above. Design competitions are the way to go for public projects in Buffalo. Even something as small as a band shell or as boring as a police station should be considered an opportunity to create great architecture for Buffalo. As nice as our new waterfront is I can't help but wonder what would have been if we had sought out the best available design through a competition.
First off, buffalo has a lot of parks. we really don't need more considering the city can't keep them maintained and have to let people like the Olmsted Parks Conservancy maintain them. (Thank God, they do one helluvah job) Secondly the Skyway needs to just be torn down. A simple boulevard into the city would be much nicer.
I'm a long time reader and this post prompted me to sign up for an account. Many of the other posters are correct when they say that this idea is horrible. The highline is 30ft off the ground and is flat. Who the hell would walk up the skyway? Some crappy cars don't even make it over now! On top of that the wind out there could probably blow a small child off.
Let's just tear the sucker down and get on with it...
If it ever does come down they should host an art/ design competition to create a landmark of one or two of the towering concrete piers rather then save too much of it for a park.
As an elevated park it would only be useful a couple months of the year.
"It takes the people out of the congested city and raises them above the traffic and the commotion of street activity" Congested? Commotion? Not words I would use to describe downtown Buffalo.
Turning the Skway into a park is one of the worst ideas in the history of the universe.
We have one of the world's greatest parkway systems. Maybe a little more coverage should be given to how we can best utilize and revitalize those while having less posts about highfalutin, never gonna happen, dead out of the gates ideas.
We need to knock down that atrocious anachronism already.
Once, in Paris, I was told not to miss the Prominade Plante which is a lengthy garden planted on an abandoned elevated rail line just behind the Bastille Opera House. I did go there and it was wonderful. There were even elongated pools of water surrounded by plantings - at that time of year there were masses of lavender around the pools. I think gardens on such an elevated site as the sky-way would be a huge tourist draw. Of course, it is high...............might have to have an elevator !!
Actuall this does not sound familiar at all, the High Line elevated train was left abandoned fro 20 + years. It took a grass roots effort culminating in a world wide design competition for an adaptive reuse of this "historic" elevated parkway. The skyway is a road, design for cars, not trains, and definilty not for people. Also the process is much different here, we ignore our fallow infastructure until it starts to cave in an react to it only when there are bulldozers on the doorstep and someone deems it "worth saving" Again...skyway does not sound familiar.
Dumbest idea ever. The highline is located in a densely developed area where tens of thousands of people live and where there are hundreds of restaurants. The Skway is not. Either keep it as a roadway or tear it down and create a landscaped boulevard.
Considering the windy cold weather plus the mountainous size of the skyway itself, perhaps there is an urban downhill skiing opportunity here. It could be billed as Shussing the Skyway. When skiers aren't being blown off the skyway to their deaths by Lake Erie's winds, they might actually have a good chance of making the descent.
[This idea is about as silly as every other idea I've read and I hope no one takes it seriously.]
The Skyway - the eyesore - should be torn down. It really doesn't add to the beauty of the Commercial Slip at all. I agree with other commenter's THAT, this Skyway is much much higher than what was done in NYC. You will get winded just walking up to the Skyway.
Honestly I am amazed that there are people out there who actually think that this elevated park idea is an intelligent, ligitimate option for the skyway. It is ridiculous. If you disagree with me then you are an idiot. How's that logic?
The Highline in NYC is on the West Side of Manhattan, sort of away from everything, but are developing around it (High-Rise Condo's and Office Buldings) and yes it is only 2 stories high and not as windy as our Skyway is. I too believe it would be dangerous to turn our Skyway into a simular public park due to the fact everytime we have high winds or snow storm, the thing is Closed off. If it's open to Pedestrians, who will warn them? or pay attention to any warning?..then we'll have problems. ...I say just tear it down, it's too high, a waist of space and is ugly.
"I am glad to know there are people in Buffalo who can envision these types of developments."
Wow, is that (most certainly unintentionally) a loaded sentence! The Highline was not only envisioned; it is actually happening. Buffalo used to be that way, but hasn't been for almost a century. The Highline wasn't easy. People of extreme wealth and influence fought tirelessly against a particular New York City kind of obstinance.
Sadly, Buffalo may have the mental power and the dreams, but it doesn't have the means.
PGF1948, the people of New York City generally supported reuse of the High Line. The only obstacle was Rudolph Giuliani; he wanted it demolished. When Giuliani left office, Mayor Bloomberg immediately reversed course and encouraged the project to move forward.
If I remember correctly, part of the operating costs will be born by taxes on businesses and commercial buildings adjacent to the High Line.
PaulBuff
You are absolutely correct about the support of most local residents, but the influences on Giuliani were not just those customary to the Mayor's office-- and certainly not those of his fellow members of the Met Opera Guild. Nevertheless, the Highline will be a developer's dream. The historical significance will be reduced to a couple of plaques and NY Times articles (re-treads, of course).l
I was raised not far from there, on West 19h Street, when Chelsea was changing from an immigrant Irish/Anglo-Irish area to a somewhat Puerto Rican neighborhood. Now losing its "character" again a second time for an aging, admiring person like me. How amazingly quickly things change in New York. I will die loving it.
Yeah, Bloomie loves those luxe condo tower developers so part of what's "envisioned" for the High Line Park is gates that close nightly, security cameras, and other high-end developer-friendly touches. It's still a fairly cool design concept and unlike anything in Buffalo, should actually happen.
If someone in New York City proposed a similar idea that must mean it's one of the coolest ideas around. Give me a break, it's still an idiotic idea.
Higgins [deleted] everybody here in the city by pushing the elevated Route 5 project. Hes not an ally, hes another shmuck politician just like the rest...Hes just jockeying for a higher position and more money, just like Wannamaker, Byron Brown, Williams, and the rest of these fools
There's a punctuation misuse in this article's first sentence: the word crazy shouldn't be in quotes. Quotes imply the idea isn't really crazy. As many explained this time and the previous time, it's really among the worst ideas ever. Not just on BR, but the worst ideas ever, anywhere, about anything. Removing the quotes and then putting crazy in bold type would clarify the opening paragraph.
To balance things out with Caug124, I was about to use this post as a prompting to delete my account.
"Caug124
Jul 14th, 11:41
I'm a long time reader and this post prompted me to sign up for an account. ..."
But then I found they don't have a button for deleting accounts. So I'm stuck existing. Everybody just pretend I'm not here. Caug124, you're off to a good start at telling these people how wrong they are. Carry on. I'll be at Moe's.
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