“I get to be one of the first art and architecture critics here, and I really like what I see,” said New York City mayor Bill de Blasio at the September 14 unveiling of Thomas Heatherwick’s design for a monumental landmark at Hudson Yards—a $20 billion development along the Manhattan’s west side, spearheaded by Related Companies and Oxford Properties. But his praise came with a word of caution to the London-based designer: “If you meet 100 New Yorkers, you will find 100 different opinions,” he said. “Do not be dismayed—this is just the way we are.”
Drawing comparisons to an M.C. Escher composition, a pinecone, or even an insect’s exoskeleton, Heatherwick’s “Vessel” is a 16-story steel pavilion with 80 viewing platforms, 154 flights of stairs, and almost 2,500 steps. “Our project is about seeing if we could get a mile of public space and stitch it all together,” the designer explains. The project will be the centerpiece of a new public plaza designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW) in collaboration with Heatherwick Studio. Related Companies chairman and founder Stephen M. Ross—who has long touted the structure as New York’s “Eiffel Tower”—said at the unveiling, “I wanted to create a 365-day Christmas tree.”
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