By Kim Velsey 10/10/12 1:49pm

High Society

The view for a few.

The Ultimate Status Symbol: An Invite to the Top of an Unfinished Skyscraper

These days hard hats are the non plus ultra of chic accessories. They make a Birkin bag look so pedestrian! And having one’s hair coiffed and colored to perfection at Frederic Fekkai is all well and good, but it’s nothing without the windblown disarray that one achieves from standing on a high floor of an unfinished skyscraper.

Yes, the best way to show off one’s money, powers of persuasion and impressive social connections is scoring a ride to the top of One57 or One World Trade Center. (Any other building that begins with “One” and recently had a topping out ceremony would also be a good bet). Why bother dropping names when you can drop an experience that illustrates you know all the names worth dropping? Read More

By Aaron Short 10/10/12 11:44am

Gettin' High Line

6 Photos

The Hinterlands of the High Line

The High Line Will Never Be the Same: Strolling the Wilds of Chelsea One Last Time

It is an unusual and yet utterly New York paradox that to glimpse the natural world in Manhattan you must visit an unnatural place.

That is part of the appeal of the weirdly beautiful High Line. Not the manicured park, with its concrete boardwalk and hordes of tourists but what came before on the 1.5-miles railroad trestle, the despoiled beauty of Mother Nature set loose in the wilds of Chelsea, undisturbed for decades but for the occasional trespasser.

More than 10 million visitors have taken in the breathtaking views of the city’s skyline and the Hudson River and traipsed through its minimalist landscape of historic tracks and native grasses since the High Line park opened in 2009. It has encouraged development in Chelsea and Meatpacking, inspired artists and filmmakers, and managed to polarize the surrounding neighborhood before it has even been fully restored.

Yet the thin strip of pre-post-industrial wildlands that made that all possible is about to disappear. Read More