At noon today, New York’s newest neighborhood will ceremonially open for business. Hudson Yards‘ first public-facing attractions—the Shops & Restaurants and Thomas Heatherwick’s interactive sculpture Vessel—will welcome the crowds that have watched patiently from afar as the project’s soaring, glass-sheathed towers have transformed the skyline. Elkus Manfredi Architects is the designer of the seven-story retail center, of which Neiman Marcus is the anchor tenant. The city’s largest indoor shopping mall with more than 100 stores, it features 720,000 leasable square feet with nearly 85 percent of the space already occupied.
Last night, an exclusive preview was held inside the mall as celebratory kickoffs began for the massive retail complex.
Looking up the main atrium he mall from the ground floor. Photo by Michael Young
Thousands of people made their way through each of the seven floors of the one-million square foot retail space. Photo by Michael Young
“The Restaurants” will feature a number of indoor and outdoor dining options curated by Chef Thomas Keller, while David Chang and Enjo “Jo” Park will open the 5,000-square-foot Kāwi and Peach Mart restaurant on the fifth floor. There will also be the highly anticipated “Mercado Little Spain,” a 35,000-square-foot Spanish version of Eataly that features the best of Chef Jose Andres and the Adria Brothers. While Thomas Keller’s restaurants will not be opening for business today, Mercado Little Spain will open at 4:00PM, and Kāwi and Peach Mart will only open for lunch.
Meanwhile, Vessel, Thomas Heatherwick’s 150-foot-tall art sculpture, will finally welcome visitors to ascend its 16 stories and take in views of the surrounding development. Access is free, but tickets must be reserved on Hudson Yards’ website. People will be able to bring up to five extra guests per party, and tickets must be presented upon arrival.
Thomas Heatherwick’s Vessel sculpture with 30 Hudson Yards towering behind. Photo by Michael Young
Looking at Thomas Heatherwick’s sculpture before the grand opening. Photo by Michael Young
The same view at night. Photo by Michael Young
In addition to the opening of Vessel and the Shops & Restaurants, today also marks the launch of the residential units at 35 Hudson Yards. The 1,000-foot-tall structure is designed by David Childs of Skidmore Owings & Merrill and yields 1.1 million square feet of space divided among 200 units, a 60,000-square-foot Equinox Hotel, offices, and ground-floor retail.
The foundations of 50 Hudson Yards reach street level (bottom) while foundations for The Spiral are getting underway (center). Photo by Michael Young
The last component of the first phase to finish is 50 Hudson Yards, designed by Norman Foster of Foster + Partners. His future 2.9-million-square-foot office tower will soon rise 985 feet and stand next to 30 Hudson Yards. Foster’s full-city block structure should finish by 2022.
What seemed like a city of dreams has now become reality, and finally reached the finish line. Hudson Yards is a new neighborhood built from scratch that quickly rose above Midtown in the blink of an eye. Creating six towering skyscrapers of glass, concrete, steel, and stone, a moveable cultural center, multi-million-dollar outdoor public sculpture, and a 1-million-square-foot, seven-story indoor shopping mall may have seemed like an impossible task. But today, everyone who contributed to the colossal $20 billion project can rest assured that the 11.9-million-square-foot master plan has come together.
Hudson Yards. Photo by Michael Young
The next step for Hudson Yards will be the fulfilling of its second phase, which will cover the remainder of the rail yards between Eleventh Avenue and the West Side Highway with 6.22 million square feet of proposed office, residential, retail, and educational space.
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Too much glass! Mirrors mirroring mirrors …
100%
The res buildings to the west better have some stone and warmer materials.
Billionaires trying to become Trillionaires. What else is there to live for?
The amount of glass does not bother me, it is a noble material. The buildings’ shapes are what temper any negativity attributed to the exterior materials. I think that this development is superb, and I know that no other city could possibly have the vision and the ability to complete such a project but New York City.
Finally Northern NJ and Westchester suburbanites will now have a place all to their own.
Will I be allowed tickets for a large group (girl scouts)?
Visited the site yesterday. The plaza and Vessel which I climbed are very nice. The shopping center portion is a blah mall with high end stores designed by someone who is most likely not a NYC resident or aware of internet sales eating into physical retailers today. Maybe the mall could be remade into a museum of retail? LOL.
Agree — the mall interior is the least inspired of its league, not up to the malls in the World Trade Center, World Financial Center or Time Warner Center.
Pardon me for using your space:
That New York Times article was damning. Shards of glass atop the wall of wealth driving its way down the middle of this city!
(Thanks to Michael Young)
150-feet tall. Hmm. How long will it be I wonder before they have to double the handrail height at the upper levels?
Hudson Yards has about 1,800 market apartments and 1,100 affordable apartments. The total cost of the yards is 26 BILLION DOLLARS. For that cost at least 100,000 affordable apartments could have been built — 97,000 more. How much profit do developers need? Making society better for more comes with much bigger rewards for everyone.
Personally I must admit that I admire the Hudson yards. NYC needs more plazas and public works of art. On the downside, this area is just a glorified playground geared towards the rich and not meant for the average working class NY’er. The majority of construction workers who built this wouldn’t be able to afford shopping here.
Hudson Yards…Another option for the Rich and Famous….the Average New York Couple could NEVER afford to live here.
A Couple earning over $400,000 each, might be able to swing it.
Dam shame!
How do I apply for the senior apartments that are being built at 139 East 56 street?
How can I apply for the senior apartments that are being built at 139 East 56 street NY
As Time Warner Ctr., vapid, formally-‘flabby’ schlock. Like a 95 year old gussied up in flared bell-bottoms and beads this agglomeration is desperately and unconvincingly covered in aggressive, spiky ‘punk’ clichéed forms…….and that remarkably awkward and unsightly ‘stairs’ feature, the very picture of ‘urban alienation’, only enhances the bad scale and unsettling ‘de Chirico’ vibe the entire setting manages to project. Added to all this, the hyped shopping ‘chic-ery’ seems to add a note of absurd comic relief or perhaps of Dali-esque implausibility.
Use your head. Malls are dead.
giorgiorighiriva
@michael_kimmelman Here we are again, the same idealist , socialist, approach, that all that is for rich is a trash, it is a land of vacuity , it is supreficial, , without morality and without culture. Hudson yards is a capitalist project like all in nyork,Ny is the capitalist capital of the world and nothing in his history has come without capital logic., but ironically, and it is the same with the fight to the new skycrapers, so high so arrogant( ny is also the capital of the skycrapers…) only for 1 per cent…( yes the one per cent tha pay your salary)it is all about an high snob vision. the critic on Hudson yards is also about the avoid of design with the urban fabric in mind like the rest of Manhattan :with various scale, tall and short, big and little , that is true , but for one time if we transgress the urban fabric , the various scale , but finally we have a public plaza , an agora areal plaza , that like in europe is an empty space ,the others plaza in Nyork are faux, because are in fact parks. with the beautifull exception about the Lincoln center .
To much glass 3 towes have 1 metal cladding one stone and one will have marble….only for rich , only for rich, the most parts in ny ork are only for rich, because is the city with the highest number of uhnetworh individuals…is norma…you cant live there ?but you can go there enjoy the plaza, the architecture, the window shopping, the landscape….are all free.