Jeff Koons Brings Back Train to New York’s High Line
Plans are made for a 2.4 kilometers extension of New York's High Line. Designers are studying scenarios for the 10th Avenue Spur, with the objective to make it one of the major gathering spaces at the park. The design will possibly include a wicked art installation by Jeff Koons called 'Train', featuring a full-size replica of a 1943 Baldwin 2900 steam locomotive suspended from a crane above the park.
“Jeff Koons’ ‘Train’ is part of a long history of big ideas for the High Line, but even if never realized, it embodies our commitment to innovation, creativity, and finding new ways to experience the city. (…) ‘Train’ has the potential to serve as a potent symbol of the area’s industrial past”, says Robert Hammond, Co-Founder of Friends of the High Line. The sculpture itself would be a completely new fabrication. In an ideal scenario the locomotive would produce steam.
The High Line is looking for funds to build ‘Train’. Estimated realization costs of Jeff Koons’ landscape intervention are $25 million — not that much if you consider the significant economic revenue another High Line artwork, ‘The Gates’ by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, has generated. It cost $21 to build this artwork, but it generated $254 million in terms of economic activity.
The High Line has proven to be an extreme success. We see all kinds of similar initiatives popping up in other cities around the world, like Philadelphia, St. Louis, Mexico City, Rotterdam, Jersey City, Paris, Chicago, and Dallas. London chooses to go underground with its Low Line.
