Tuesday, October 13, 2009

High on The High Line in New York by Erin Ferucci, Designs 4 Living

By Erin Ferucci
Celebrity Lifestyle Designer

Last weekend I was on my fall shopping trip to New York. There was so much see and do. More than once I found myself in the area known as Gansevoort Market, better known as The Meatpacking District. This is an area of the City that has been experiencing an amazing transformation over the last decade. In the early 1900's the area was home to over 259 slaughterhouses and packing plants, by the 1980's it was an area that was known for sex clubs, drug dealing and prostitution.Then in the late 1990's Diane von Furstenberg and a dozen other high end designers opened boutiques in the neighborhood. What a difference a designer can make.Gansevoort Market is now widely considered the hottest, trendiest place to be in New York City. For shopping there are dozens of high-end boutiques to choose from such as Diane von Furstenberg, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Rubin Chapelle. For fine dining there are such renowned restaurants as Pastis and Ajna Bar, formerly know as the Buddha Bar, and nightclubs such as Tenjune, and G-Spa at The Hotel Gansevoort. Is it any wonder New York magazine dubbed the Meatpacking District "New York’s most fashionable neighborhood"?
It's not just a neighborhood either, the entire Meatpacking District was added to the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places in 2007. This summer the first segment of the High Line opened. This amazing concrete playground was featured in last month's Interior Design magazine. It used to be an elevated freight railroad developed under the aegis of Robert Moses, now it is an incredible greenway modeled after Paris' Promenade Plantée. The High Line park isn't finished, when it is done it will continue from the former 34th Street freight yard, near the Javits Convention Center, through the neighborhood of Chelsea to Gansevoort Street (one block below West 12th Street) in the Meat Packing District of the West Village. For now just the southernmost section is open while the middle section is still being refurbished. You can get to the High Line park from five different stairways or an auxiliary elevator on 16th Street. The park is lush with naturalized plantings that are inspired by the self-seeded landscape that grew on the unused tracks. Spectacular, unexpected views of the city and the Hudson River can be seen along the pebble-dashed concrete walkways. The old tracks are incorporated into the park creating a unique perspective of what once was. It is nothing short of a work of art.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Big Sur Beauty by Erin Ferucci, Designs 4 Living

By Erin Ferucci
Celebrity Lifestyle Designer

Big Sur is a stunning location... for a wedding. A good friend got married there recently and I designed the flowers. With a back drop like this it's hard to go wrong. If you've never been to Big Sur it is a section of the California coast line where the Santa Lucia mountains rise sharply creating awe inspiring cliffs and breath taking vistas. It's gorgeous on an epic scale and a perfect location for a simply elegant wedding.Perfect pale pink roses paired with rich organic mountain greens were our themes. The wedding was spectacular.And the Bride & Groom lived happily ever after...