[caption id="attachment_276" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="9th Ave Street Shot"]

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We shot on w 14th street, in the heart of the meatpacking district, defined by Chelsea Market to the north and Gansevoort Street to the south.  The area was originally established as a bustling outdoor food market, Gansevoort Market Historic District, in 1884.  The city named it after General Peter Gansevoort, a Revolutionary War hero and the grandfather of great American writer, Herman Melville.  In 1949, the Gansevoort Meat Center opened, now affectionately referred to as the meatpacking district.

Ever evolving, the current incarnation sees meatpacking plants living happily side-by-side with fashion design studios, luxury boutiques, salons, graphic designers, writers, architects, artists and of course, photographers, including our own Rich Schaub.  The neighboring Ground Zero Museum Workshop is a somber contrast to the restaurants and nightlife venues, which create an up-all-night vibe that makes this the quintessential 24-hour neighborhood.

Passers-by barely blink an eye at the stand of tall models waiting their turn to strut the cobblestone streets.  Not surprising given that in the few hours we were here we encountered TV cameras, gallery openings and even Nigel Barker, photographer and reality tv star, strolling with his wife, 3-year-old son and their newest addition, daughter Jasmine - all in a day's work.

NYC never sleeps and this district is no exception.  The latest undertaking is the conversion of the historic High Line rail structure, which runs through three of Manhattan's most dynamic neighborhoods: Hell's Kitchen/Hudson Yards, West Chelsea, and the Gansevoort Market Historic District, to a grand, public promenade.  According to the Friends of the High Line, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and reuse of the High Line: "When the High Line is completed, it will offer views of the Hudson River, the Manhattan skyline and secret gardens inside city blocks as you've never seen them before.  You will move between Penn Station and the Hudson River Park, from the convention center to the Gansevoort Market Historic District, without meeting a car or truck. ...You will sense New York's industrial past in the rivulets and girders.  You will perceive the future unrolling before you in an artfully designed environment of unprecedented innovation."  Can't wait until it opens!!  Learn more about the High Line.