May | 2015 | Sole Searching

In April my son and I took a trip to New York City. We stayed at a hotel in Chelsea and made downtown, particularly the West Side, our main focus of attention. One of the highlights, for me, was walking the length of one of Manhattan’s latest attractions; The High Line. The above ground linear park is a repurposed elevated section of a disused portion of a New York Central Railroad Spur called the West Side Line. The 1.45-mile-long aerial greenway runs from around 14th Street in the Meatpacking District, through Chelsea, to the northern edge of the West Side Train Yard on 34th Street with second story views of both old and emerging architecture, newly created art installations, construction sites, train yards, and the Hudson River. It was a glorious early spring morning with glimpses of budding green growth and intense purple patches of crocuses between preserved railroad ties. Mingled in the air was a composition of distant metallic clanging, occasional jackhammering and the softer, gentler car noises typical of a downtown side street. After this long slog of a winter, I felt like I had walked through the gates of heaven. I wanted this to be the first of many future treks along the High Line. There is so much to see and hear. It must change from season to season, month to month, week to week. This time, this first time, it was the architecture that took me by surprise. When did walls become obtuse, rounded, and protruding? I kinda love it. Our hotel occupied what use to be sleeping quarters for merchant marines docking at Chelsea Pier. Isn’t it fabulous too? It’s called the Downtown Dream Hotel. I highly recommend it. So naturally, all this interaction with architecture got me to thinking about… well… SHOES! Shoes certainly have architectural appeal.