After waking up early in order to be able to catch the train to New York, we ate at the hotel buffet. At precisely 6:20 A.M. we left the hotel and began our hectic quest to the train station. However, once we arrived at the station, we accidentally tried to board the wrong train. Thankfully, after an official checked our tickets at the last second, we noticed that we were indeed about to board the wrong train and quickly switched over to the other gate. Mr. Patterson, however, had to travel on another train because he somehow had a different ticket than us.
The Flat Iron: The first skyscraper in the world.
Cool metal snowflakes designed to shade the walkway in Madison Square Park.
Having survived two hours and thirty minutes of sheer boredom, we left the train and navigated the devilish streets of New York to our new hotel, the Comfort Inn in Chelsea. We then walked to a nearby park to get food and discuss the day ahead.
A building we saw on the High Line, which had cool architectural features.
The EDI fellows stand in front of a window frame on the High Line.
From there we walked a grueling 1.2 miles to the High Line. There, we enjoyed the innovative architecture and engineering of the buildings and objects around us. From the High Line we were able to see the Hudson River, which separates Manhattan from New Jersey.
Then we moved on to our next destination, Civic Hall. There, we got a history which was fairly brief because it had only been open for about 150 days. We were also given a tour of the building, which had many open spaces. In addition, we were told about the mission of Open Tech Fund. While we were there, we met with Sandra Ordonez, who talked to us about surveillance within the government.
The group at Civic Hall posing in actual telephone booths.
After walking back to the hotel, we ordered various foods and watched a 1 hour documentary on the design process called “Extreme by Design.” Then we walked back to our own rooms and tried get some much needed shut-eye for the day ahead.