Since the 150-foot-high folly, the Vessel, opened in March 2019 in Hudson Yards, the luxury real estate development on Manhattan’s far West Side, four people have died jumping over its waist-high glass barriers. After the third suicide last January, the $250 million climbable tourist attraction designed by Thomas Heatherwick—derided by many critics, but popular with visitors—was closed. When it re-opened two months ago, precautionary measures included a requirement that people visit in groups of two or more, and entry would no longer be free but $10 a ticket. Then last Thursday, July 29, a 14-year-old boy, who was with family members, leapt to his death. Recommendations from the local community board and suicide prevention experts to raise the barriers to at least seven feet had been ignored, according to the New York Times, which also reported that a staff member at Heatherwick Studio said the firm had designed higher barriers but they had not been installed. 

Vessel’s website, which states the attraction is temporarily closed, includes the following anodyne statement: “Vessel is made extraordinary by the people who visit, and by experiencing it with others. Each of you matter to us, and to so many others.”