ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 Arresting Decay: Tropical Hardwood from Para, Brazil to the High Line, 2009, links the Amazon rainforest of northern Brazil with the High Line in Manhattan, by following the movement of ipe (Tabebuia spp.), a slow-growing deciduous tree whose wood is extremely durable, hard, and rot-resistant. Because the harvest of ipe targets sparsely distributed, old growth trees, and participates in patterns of large-scale deforestation driven by global markets, its use is controversial. At the same time, the use of durable materials is a central tenet of sustainable building best practices. The chapter examines the theme of durability and obsolescence, through the material of tropical hardwood, but also through the re-used elevated rail structure in Chelsea (the same structure built in the 1930s as part of the West Side Improvement, which included the renovation of Riverside Park). The case of ipe lumber highlights contemporary conditions of globalized neoliberalism, linking new post-industrial landscapes of leisure with the migration of industry elsewhere, the increased access to global lumber, and the outsourcing of ecological risk.
