After some fieldwork I decided to go big and signed up for a workshop in New York. A city I really like to visit and to which I am always drawn to.
In the beginning of 1900; more than 250 slaughterhouses and packing plants filled the district; by the 1930s, those 'meat' houses produced the nation’s third-largest volume of dressed meats. Five meatpacking companies still operate in the district.
First for produce and after the development of reliable refrigeration, for meat. Gansevoort Market then became a commercial district. Five meatpacking companies still operate in the district.
On the one hand, meat is still traded and on the other hand, there are trendy shops, which are also frequented by celebrities. The Meatpacking District appears in the Sex and the City series as the home of Samantha Jones and is also mentioned in the soap opera The City.
In the last 20 years, fashion and graphic designers, architects, artists, restaurateurs, world-renowned stylists and corporate headquarters have moved in alongside existing meatpacking plants. This has created an incredibly interesting and diverse dynamic that is fitting, given all of the inherent contrasts of the area.
Originally built in 1907-08 as the American Seamen's Friend Society Sailors' Home and Institute, the Jane Hotel welcomed sailors who had just jumped from their ships when the Hudson River piers were teeming with dock workers. The rooms here housed survivors of the Titanic after they disembarked at Pier 54, just a few blocks away. The hotel has had many lives since, as a YMCA, as a theater and as an official New York City landmark since 2000. In 2008, the hotel was restored, keeping its secrets and fascinating history intact.
is located where the Meatpacking touches the Hudson River. It houses the full range of twentieth-century and contemporary American art, with a special focus on works by living artists.
Collecting, preserving, interpreting and displaying American art, and its collection — arguably the finest collection of twentieth-century American art in the world — is the museum's primary resource. The museum's signature exhibit, the Biennale, is the leading overview of the most recent developments in American art in the country.
By 2003, the number of meat traders had fallen to about thirty-five. The neighborhood fell into disrepair from the 1960s and became a center of drug trafficking with prostitution and BDSM clubs in the 1980s. In the late 90s, a turnaround came about with the establishment of boutiques and hip nightlife. In 2004, the neighborhood was named "New York's most fashionable neighborhood" by New York Magazine.
As usual, there is a street musician at the entrance of the High Line Park. This park is built on an old railway and gives a special view of the city. You will find all kinds of plants and works of art.
The unused elevated track was later converted into an elongated city park, called High Line. Especially in the summer it is very nice to visit the park. Then everything is in bloom. It is an ideal place to enjoy the sun or even the starry sky.
In addition to the Jane Hotel, The Standard, High Line and Gansevoort Meatpacking are excellent places to stay in NYC. All have a hip rooftop bar and are therefore also great places to go out.