Architect led High Line redevelopment
Peter Mullan will become the first president and chief executive officer of Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Inc. on Jan. 1, the organization said on Tuesday (Oct. 15).
Mullan is an architect who served, from 2004 to 2015, as planning and design director and executive vice president for Friends of the High Line, which led the redevelopment of the former elevated rail line into a public park. Since 2015, he has served as CEO of Waterloo Greenway Conservancy in Austin, Texas, and chief of architecture and urban design for the Austin Transit Partnership.
Mullan, who has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a master’s in architecture from Yale, will work with Amy Kacala, the HHFT executive director. He called the Fjord Trail, a planned 7.5-mile linear park between Cold Spring and Beacon, a “visionary project that provides an opportunity to ensure equity and access to New York State parks, enhance and protect the Hudson River and Highlands ecosystems, and better manage existing tourism to the region.”
For anyone that ever believed the Fjord Trail was designed to solve the problem of traffic and congestion along the Breakneck/9D corridor, there you have it. They want to bring the High Line to Cold Spring and destroy our community.
The mask slips even further. HHFT is not even trying to hide its objective any longer: High Line North, an award-winning promenade that will be the epicenter of regional tourism. I give HHFT credit for honesty (finally) on this point.
I am so tired of these developers telling us what’s best for our communities. There is more than enough river and mountain access for whoever desires it, handicapped included. The original proposal was a modest trail to protect hikers along 9D, but once Scenic Hudson and billionaire Chris Davis got involved, it exploded into a huge, overwrought development. If you think your taxes are high now, and weekend roads too congested, just wait! Their claim to “better manage tourism and protect the environment” by “increasing access and equity” for a zillion more tourists, beggars belief. High time we scrapped all of their big ideas and went back to the original plan; which was far less costly and much more sustainable.
Peter, nice to see a friendly face. Maybe you can convince me this project is a good idea and won’t ruin my town and life in it now. Nobody else has done so effectively!
Peter is a welcome voice to the conversation: Smart, personable and someone you want to hang out with. Please welcome him to our community.
Shea is a board member of Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail Inc.