DVF and Barry Diller Give $10 Million to High Line
By Stephanie Wilson
The Highline, a defunct railroad that runs above Manhattan, is getting a second life as a new park, which is set to open later this month. This transformation would not have been possible without the $5 million donation in 2005 by Diane Von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller. In a miraculously generous act, the power couple just pledged an additional $10 million to Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit organization charged with paying the $2 to $4 million annual operating costs for the new park. This is one of the four largest donations to a public park in the city’s history. The park will run by the offices of both donors, who are among its most famous backers.
Once Furstenburg and Diller announced their donation, another couple stepped up and matched it: Philip and Lisa Maria Falcone. That brings the fund-raising to $44 million in a $50 million capital campaign. It will be allotted in $2 million annual increments over five years, requiring Friends of the High Line, a nonprofit group that manages the project, to match each installment.
According to the New York Times, the first phase of the High Line, which runs from Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district to 20th Street, is due to open some time this month. The meandering path 30 feet above the street — with plantings and water areas designed by Field Operations, a landscape architecture company, and Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the architectural firm — will ultimately extend all the way to 34th Street.
Via New York Magazine/New York Times
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