700-foot wall could turn Hudson Yards into a real 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...