Sunday, August 09, 2015

Exploring New York - Google NYC Offices, High Line Trail, Chelsea Market, Flatiron Building and Freedom Tower




This past week I was in New York City for several days doing some brainstorming work with Google. The only other time I have visited New York was back in 2008 so I was excited to explore some parts of the city in my share time this week. I have a separate blog post on the hotel at which I stayed – The Jane Hotel – and my visit to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.  In this post I wanted to share a couple of pictures and thoughts on some of the places I visited.




Twice during my stay I visited the High Line Trail in the evening.  The High Line is an elevated area that at one time was a rail line and in recent years has been converted to an urban walking trail with lots of great art and plants.  The trail itself is very cool with wildflowers and tall grasses on both sides as you stroll through the heart of New York and see the skyscrapers around you.  Several places in the trail have statues, unique places to sit and at numerous locations there are little restaurants and vendors selling items like ice cream sandwiches. 





I walked the High Line at night both times I visited and it was very popular, almost what I would consider ‘crowded” but to a native New Yorker it would probably be considered spacious. It was sunset on the first night I visited and I took quite a few pictures of the sun setting over the Hudson River.  It is a great collision of nature in an urban setting.







Just below the High Line trail, literally, is Chelsea Market. Chelsea Market is an eclectic collection of cool food and art shops in a historic building.  I walked around the bought a half price gourmet cupcake (it was close to closing time and it was delicious) as well as some fancy doughnuts. There was a great area in which a large collection of individual artists each had there own area to sell specific handmade items. My favorite was a gentlemen who had taken bike maps of the city of New York and then screen printed a picture of a New York City street scene in black ink on top of the map.  It would be a very cool framed print.






One of the items on my “must do” list for this trip to New York was setting the FlatIron Building.  You have probably seen the Flat Iron Building in pictures – it is the iconic tall, almost flat building in New York.  I have always wanted to see it in person but did not get a chance back in 2008 to see it.  I had a little bit of time one night to walk over to the Flat Iron around 7:30 in the evening.  I wasn’t sure what the light would look like when I got there since it was getting later in the day but I thought I would take a chance.  Luckily when I got there the light from the setting sun was still hitting one side of the building.  I thought it made an interesting shadow on the side of the building and I was able to take a few pictures that I think turned out well.  It was interesting to find angles to take pictures of the Flat Iron building with both showed it’s size and the unique flat shape.  I was happy with the pictures that I took and hope next time to maybe get over there in time to see what photographs would like at sunrise.








On my visit to the 9/11 Museum on my last day I took a few pictures of the relatively new Freedom Tower.  It is an interesting building to photograph because at different times of the day it can have a pretty intense reflection from the sun.  A couple of the pictures that I took include an area of the building that had a bright reflection.  Some of the pictures I took of the Freedom Tower are from the area around the 9/11 Memorial that includes trees.  It seemed a little unusual taking a picture of this huge skyscraper framed by trees.



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