The Tenth Avenue Square. Sit down — those are stadium bleachers, and they face a giant picture window framing Tenth Avenue below. Cars, taxis, pedestrians, bikes — all of it, from up here, looks like a movie. The designers built this on purpose. It's called the Tenth Avenue Square, and it's the High Line's version of people-watching from a cafe, except the cafe is thirty feet up and the view is straight down the avenue where cowboys used to ride.
Back behind you — to the south, the big glass-and-steel building straddling the High Line on stilts? That's the Standard Hotel. Three hundred and thirty-eight rooms, every single one with floor-to-ceiling glass windows. When it opened, the situation became immediately obvious. Guests in those rooms were visible from the park. ALL of them. Showering, sleeping, and — to put it gently — not sleeping.
The rooms on the south side are only seventeen feet deep. Floor-to-ceiling glass, basically fishbowls. Some of the suites have open bathtubs with
river views — visible from the High Line. A staff member told reporters, quote, we don't discourage it, in actual fact, we encourage it. A general manager sent guests a letter reminding them that, quote, activity in their room may be visible from the outside. The City Council Speaker had to publicly ask them to stop. They did not stop. The most expensive rooms face the park.
Now look in the other
