Well Done

The Meatpacking District is about to become a little plumper with the introduction of UrbanSpace.  Poised to open at the beginning of September, the souk-like marketplace will deliver a new cut to the High Line milieu.  My gut tells me that this post will soon become the meat and potatoes of the neighborhood.

wisteria

I was toodling through the Meatpacking District when I stumbled upon this beaut. In a couple of weeks the climber is going to be a profusion of purple but for now, it's sinuous architecture is a delight.

Happy Days?

While inhaling the sensory grit of the Meatpacking District, I revelled in it's gentrified industrialism and beamed under a ceiling of steel girders shouldering the High Line's central spur. My architectural stars were aligned until my gaze suddenly caught a shonda of shopping disparity. Dripping like a Dali, but Brut-strong in suggestion, a mirage of orange and gold reflected Tory Burch's new outpost within the cleavage of Little West 12th and Washington Street. Starving artists, Hogs and Heifers, drag queens, panhandlers....and Marion Cunningham approved "Reva" Ballerina Flats?
Has the Meatpacking District jumped the shark?

Butchered

Recently, Architectural Digest featured Diane von Furstenberg's lair within the urban fabric of the Meatpacking District. Snout to tail was designed by WORKac. Personally, after seeing the plan of the rooftop landscape architecture, I'd sooner be vegan.
The glass pod in the corner was slightly intriguing from a "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory glass elevator design" meets I.M. Pei's truncated glass pyramid at the Louvre. Both signal rebirth, true to the neighborhood's dogma. However, the rest of the rooftop was all euthanasia. While the plant palette set to mimic the nearby native chic of the High Line, the thicket of plantings looked like a tick's Junkanoo. And what a waste of space. Diane loves her gentle skirted lines, but the deck severed the possibility of fluid entertainment and infringed on any interaction with the impressive skyline. After the glass pod, the design seemed like a bum wrap.