Work is almost finished on the ‘Vessel’ which was designed by Thomas Heatherwick at the Hudson Yards in New York City. Now that it has topped out, the ‘Vessel’ got under the spotlight on Instagram as many people have been posting pictures of it as work is finally wrapping up. The pictures do not only showcase the 154 stairways whose length in total is about one mile, but they also display the multiple high-rises among which the structure stands.
The area around the ‘Vessel’ is expected to encompass multiple gardens and a communal plaza, once the project is completed. In addition to that, the public will be able to mount the ‘Vessel’ and enjoy views of the neighborhood. The structure is composed of many layers that keep increasing in width as we go upwards till hitting a diameter of 150 feet at the uppermost layer. The layers were manufactured in Italy and then transported to the States by the sea where they were put in position at the Hudson Yards via a crane. Still missing the glass handrail, the enormous honeycomb-like stairway is expected to be an important public venue in the area.
“In a city full of eye-catching structures, our first thought was that it shouldn’t just be something to look at,” stated Thomas Heatherwick in 2016 at the beginning of the project. “Instead we wanted to make something that everybody could use, touch, relate to.”
Nelson Byrd Woltz Architects will be designing the gardens that will surround the ‘Vessel’ so as to comprise a massive fountain – 200 feet in length – as well as a myriad of trees and plants. The great infrastructure and the development of the area were planned by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates which is also the architect of record for the ‘Vessel’.
A total of 16 towers and skyscrapers are now under construction at the Hudson Yards which is considered to be the biggest development in New York City since the 1930s when the Rockefeller Center was built.
On the other hand, Heatherwick Studio has recently revealed the design of two residential high-rises with protruding glass windows close to the location where the ‘Vessel’ resides.
