A new skyline reinvents Manhattan between the scenic Hudson River and the oasis of the High Line, transformed into an architectural promenade by outstanding names in design: from the XI (Eleventh) dancing towers by BIG, to the masterpiece by Zaha Hadid and buildings by Frank O. Gehry and Jean Nouvel. The creative ferment never stops, making New York the current center of contemporary architecture. In this emphatic context, March saw the launch of part of the immense, long-awaited Hudson Yards complex, a development by Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group.

The grand opening presented a public square and garden, including The Shed center for the arts with its Bloomberg Building, the symbolic Vessel, the exclusive mall and the Fifteen Hudson Yards tower. The luxury shopping experience organized on five levels – with design by Elkus Manfredi – is the new home of brands like Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Patek Philippe and Chanel, the immersive SnarkPark by Snarkitecture, and the gourmand visions of the chefs José Andrés, David Chang and Thomas Keller. The Observation Deck of Hudson Yards – the highest in the Western Hemisphere – will be opening soon. Visitors are stunned by the splendor of the so-called Vessel, the architectural totem by Thomas Heatherwick/Heatherwick Studio, or by the avant-garde creativity of the Bloomberg Building, the mutable performing art center by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, lead architect, and Rockwell Group, collaborating architect, with its shell that moves on tracks. All around shiny skyscrapers for offices, private residences and hospitality facilities about to open – including the first Equinox Hotel with the largest fitness center – rise into the skies over Manhattan, looming over the West Side and the future public garden that will be connected to the High Line and revealing the unstoppable metamorphosis of the physiognomy of New York.

The Shed

The Bloomberg Building, 545 West 30th Street

Creative audacity to match the history of the High Line, the West Side Yard and its inseparable railroad identity, transforming the static idea of architecture into an avant-garde achievement: the performing arts center of the Bloomberg Building which contains The Shed – a nonprofit cultural institution – designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, lead architect, with Rockwell Group, collaborating architect, has been conceived as a kinetic, mutable facility of 20,000 square meters, with a telescopic ‘shell’ that slides on tracks. An innovative location for various creative productions, whose structural flexibility responds to the most ambitious requirements of artists. With a height of 36 meters, the mobile shell is composed of a visible steel framework clad by translucent ‘panels’ in ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) – a material offering excellent thermal performance – and is one of the largest such structures in the world. The multiple levels contain a versatile theater space, a rehearsal room, two floors of exhibition space, a creative workshop for artistic productions and a zone for events. The most iconic space is the McCourt – the area inside the mobile shell – which can welcome up to 2000 viewers; the 2nd and 4th levels are set aside for exhibitions, like the rooms of a museum, free of pillars; on the 6th floor the Kenneth C. Griffin Theater can be subdivided into smaller spaces for various needs, while the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Skylights and Tisch Lab on the 8th and uppermost level are set aside for events, rehearsals and artist activities. Finally, the Plaza is a public space that doubles its size when the shell slides back into the building, becoming an outdoor stage.

Photo © Iwan Baan, courtesy The Shed

Vessel

Its sinuous shape suggesting a beehive and the glow of its copper cladding that reflects every detail of the surroundings make the Vessel an authentic theatrical set, an iconic and totemic sculpture to ‘climb’ and walk through, step after step, in search of new horizons. Created by Thomas Heatherwick / Heatherwick Studio, the symbol of Hudson Yards stands at the center of the public square and garden, becoming a perspective fulcrum for the district, immersed in its fascinating structure composed of a weave of steps and ramps. The Vessel modules made in Italy, at Monfalcone, and assembled at the site, at Hudson Yards, create an intersection of volumes and a kaleidoscope of forms. The architectural composition is intriguing: the majestic glowing totem that is the landmark of a new hub of creativity translates and interprets one of the emblems of New York, the ladder, transformed into an artistic feature. An elsewhere that has already been adopted by New Yorkers as a new icon of Manhattan, a network of 2500 steps, 154 ramps and 80 panoramic platforms. In what seems like an infinite ‘becoming’: that of the future.

Photo © Michael Moran for Related Oxford

Fifteen Hudson Yards