Related’s towers rising over the Eastern Railyards as part of the Hudson Yards redevelopment have been well over a decade in the making, but one block to the north, progress has been substantially faster on the redevelopment of the southwest corner of 34th Street and 10th Avenue. YIMBY previously reported that Mitsui Fudosan took a 90% ownership stake from Related as of early September, and now, excavation is underway.
50 Hudson Yards excavation, photo by hagenscutt
The site’s old McDonald’s is now a distant memory, and a gaping chasm has appeared in the earth where it used to be. Excavation equipment has made seemingly quick work on the lot, although progress must also extend underneath the old Coach Heaquarters, which still has a few floors to go before it is completely leveled.
50 Hudson Yards Coach Building demo as of three weeks ago, photo by JC_Heights
The new tower will comprise 2.9 million square feet of office space, becoming one of the largest such buildings in all of New York City, with a soaring and substantial design by Foster + Partners. YIMBY featured a fresh batch of images back in July, which give a decent idea of just how prominent the 985-foot supertall will become on the Midtown skyline.
Building applications for the entirety of the skyscraper remain missing in action, with current filings confined to the 887,600 square foot and 12-story office base.
50 Hudson Yards, image via Related
Mitsui Fudosan’s stake puts the project’s value at $3.6 billion, and with excavation and demolition continuing to make quick headway, the tentative 2022 completion date seems to be well within reach. BlackRock has already signed on for 850,000 square feet of space.
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I come into contact with you to view new piece of development. (Thank you)
Oh, yes, given its height and bulk, this Foster & Partners supertall building at 50 Hudson Yards will be soaring high into our city’s sky – but the only thing “substantial” about it is how much money the developer pockets from its substantial height and bulk, and the stark contrast of how little “Wow!” this Foster building has in its impact on the skyline than, say, his many, many other spectacular designs to his credit in cities around the world.
Or even at his substantially shorter and smaller, yet truly exceptional, masterpiece on West 57th Street near Columbus Circle that in fact is substantial in every meaning of the word, the Hearst Tower.
But “substantial” in terms of design, this taller, bulkier version of the many, many pedestrian and banal buildings littering the NYC skyline is hardly a match for the Hearst Building, or a great many other truly “substantial” designs seen in many cities around the world, such as London’s “Gherkin” (or Swiss Re) building, London City Hall, the HSBC Tower, or many, many others that when compared to this snooze fest, complete snorer of a building, only serves as a reminder that yet again to amplifies the larger issue of how our city was promised something truly exciting by both politicians and developers when the MTA railyards were rezoned to allow for such a dense concentration of supertalls so the value of the land could be maximized, but now, as buildings are emerging over those railyards, and nearby, none has yet to offer even a fraction of the “Wow!!!” factor seen in Foster’s other far more spectacular buildings, or even any of the many extraordinary, and iconic buildings practically sprouting like weeds when compared to Hudson Yards in cities elsewhere around the world such as London, Shanghai, or Dubai just to name but a few whose skylines are becoming filled with truly exciting examples of art and engineering that is great architecture!!!
And what’s even worse, the taxpayers via a public agency, the MTA, are supposed to have a voice in this since, after all, it was the air rights above this vital transportation storage yard, that were traded off, yet now that the real buildings are replacing the lofty descriptions promised as the bait to: a.) get the area rezoned for densities far higher and greater than elsewhere in Manhattan (in such close concentrations, too) and b.) to increase the value of the air rights so that there would be some sort of “public benefit” flowing back to the communites served, it’s hard to NOT feel disappointed that instead of getting architectural masterpieces many other cities around the world are seeing take shape in their dramatic 21st Century worthy skylines, our city is getting nothing more than the same-old, same-old boring glass boxes (or worse if they’re slanted) whose only real distinguising features are that they’re taller and bulkier than the much if the “nothing special” ones built over the past 50 or so years in the LAST CENTURY.
All of course, using the “blank canvas” afforded by the air rights that had lain fallow until being auctioned off during the Bloomberg era.
Sorry, YIMBY, but this building hardly merits anything more than many, many “substantial” eye-rolls and a great, big, yawn to elicit the “so what, who cares…is THAT all there is?” factor that this insipid and uninspiring “design” better reflects.
Here’s hoping that before every last parcel in Hudson Yards is developed somebody has the courage to boldly step forward with the vision to actually build something that rivals our city’s existing, truly iconic landmarks that are as much great works of art as they are reflections of the periods they were built in, say the way the Woolworth Building is, the Flatiron Building is, the Chrysler Building is, the Empire State Building is, Lever House is, the Citibank Building is, the Seagrams Building is, Rockefeller Center is, the Met Life (nee Pan Am) Building is, the former Twin Towers were and its replacement One World Trade Center is, to name but just a handful of the many incredible gems found throughout Manhattan as a testament to this century instead of merely building taller and bulkier versions of the mostly ugly, nothing special, buildings built LAST CENTURY…
I mean seriously, if they want to just dust off stale, warmed over LAST CENTURY designs, can they at least seek to to emulate the BEST OF THOSE LAST CENTURY DESIGNS – instead of the ones that never really impressed to begin with like the ones pupulating Hudson Yards thus far all seem to be doing?
Sure the Culture Shed is pretty, and likey to become “iconic”, or even the “interactive” stairs that resemble the look of a beehive which will certainly become a popular “scenic lookout” at the base of these otherwise indistinguishable buildings.
But if we close our eyes, picture some of the most eye catching examples of 21st century architecture appearing in global cities NOT New York, and are truly being honest, not a single one seen or unveiled so far for Hudson Yards comes even remotely close to what’s being built as architectural and engineering marvels in many, many other places around the world.
Not one. NOT A SINGLE ONE.
The largesse of architectural masterpieces are unfortunately not economically possible except in those cases, as most of the examples cited by the previous author, where the acquisition costs were a bargain, or as in the example of The Freedom Tower, greatly subsidized or incentivized.
I have to agree 20 -50 -75 years from now no one is going to go to Hudson Yards to comment on the great architecture that was built there……….You have unexciting throw them up as fast as you can, with cheap glass curtain walls, and walk away with millions in bank. Why are we not pushing architecture like London, Shanghai, Dubai and others. This is just side that we are letting this continue so many years after Bloomberg!! There is no thought to GLASS and more GLASS, what about some real stories of brick, stone, granite!!! The millions are to be made anyway the are built, if they had a old school look they would make even More. Shame on you NYC for approving this BLAH DESIGNS