I have old friends in San Francisco who grudgingly tell me that the High Line is everything that's wrong with New York. Well, too bad. To me, it embodies a culture that's constantly reinventing itself: a defunct elevated railway that was becoming a burden to the city ("we used to climb up there to throw garbage bags full of rotting Korean food at the Hasids!", noted a successful photographer's assistant) becoming a startling example of urban greening for the public good. The expert landscaping makes it feel like walking on a Montauk beach - but a stone's throw from some of New York's most progressive galleries and hotels.

This simple Manhattan salt house is shaped like a monumental grain of salt. The Shed is an effort by the city to make even their most utilitarian architecture into unique pieces of art.

Handmade pasta in a former garage.

You've heard about the reading room at the New York Public Library, haven't you? Then I need not go on. Just look at it. And you're allowed to hang around in there!

If only places can speak...yet they have their own language with their texture, smell, vibe, mood...new york is waking up