We have just returned from a short but very intense sojourn to New York and Washington.
It has been just over 30 years since my last trip to New York and I had never been to Washington. So much has changed and developed, and yet some things have stayed the same.
We stayed in the ‘Village’ area and had the privilege to visit friends who had a roof top terrace in the building they lived in. With a glass of wine in hand I did some sketches, while chatting, in both directions, one showing local roof top water tanks and the other up mid-town with the empire state building and the dense high rise.
Visting the many galleries I did some quick sketches: a series of thumbnail sketches to better understand how some of the artists consider composition; a streetscape with the very busy sign posts; and visited the roof top of the Metropolitan museum and did a quick charcoal sketch here.
The High Line
One of the biggest notable developments was the ‘high line’. This is a relatively new urban landscape intervention on what was old obsolete rail lines. The rail line was first constructed in 1934 transporting millions of tons of meat and dairy from the meat packing district to the rest of New York (and beyond). By the mid 1980’s all traffic had stopped and it was left fallow and unused while discussions were had to determine if to demolish or develop.
The ‘High line’ was completed in three phases 2009, 2011 and 2014. Subsequently there have been many developments along this line by ‘Stararchitects ‘ including Jean novelle, Zaha Hadid and additional interventions, both landscaped and building including the ‘little island’ and a new Whitney museum by Renzo piano.
Washington was, surprisingly, fascinating!
We generally avoided any politics (which was in a way unavoidable) and visited the many different Smithsonian Museums that educated us not only in the fine arts and space but also the history of the black and native Americans. I couldn’t help but do a mind mud map of these
experiences. I had not planned to go to the USA but found it a really rewarding and interesting experience and do hope to visit again well before the next 30 years!