700-foot wall could turn Hudson Yards into real a gated community

Writing in The New York Times, architecture critic Michael Kimmelman sounds off against recently revealed intentions by Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, that could wall-off a semi-public park slated for the western end of the mega-project's second phase site. 

The plan for the so-called Western Yard development was originally approved containing a green space that dipped down to meet the city's Hudson River edge, but is now potentially being changed to create a "man-made promontory" that could limit visual connections between the High Line and the park, potentially cementing the district's already strong reputation for existing as a "quasi-gated community" in the heart of Manhattan. 

Describing rumors of the changing design, Kimmelman writes, "The developer has recently been talking about elevating the yard’s deck several stories to fit a parking garage underneath," adding, "the site would no longer decline toward the river but rise up, as it moved east to west, cre...