British Designer Thomas Heatherwick’s “Vessel” Opens at Hudson Bay
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British designer Thomas Heatherwick’s giant honeycomb-like sculpture at New York’s Hudson Yards has opened to the public, along with the other public spaces at the vast West Side development. The huge artwork, which comprises Escher-like lattice of iBritish Designer Thomas Heatherwick’s “Vessel” Opens at Hudson Bay
British designer Thomas Heatherwick’s giant honeycomb-like sculpture at New York’s Hudson Yards has opened to the public, along with the other public spaces at the vast West Side development. The huge artwork, which comprises Escher-like lattice of interconnected stair flights and 80 landings, officially opened with the rest of the plaza and gardens, and the retail and entertainment provisions at Hudson Yards phase one, on March 15, 2019. In the project note, Heatherwick Studio stated that when invited to design a public centerpiece for Hudson Yards, it wanted to create a structure that visitors could use, touch, and relate to. As described by the project note, “Drawing inspiration from the ancient stepwells of India, the studio sought to evoke the powerful effect of their repeating steps, flights, and landings that reach down to the earth,” in the structure for Hudson Bay. “Composed of 154 flights and almost 2,500 steps, the effect of climbing up and down ‘Vessel’s’ staircases creates a personal rhythm in each visitor,” adds the description provided in the project note. The “Vessel” is narrow at its base but expands to reach 150 feet high and 150 feet wide (46 meters) at the top. First unveiled in September 2016, the structure’s flights and landings create a mile of a walkway that will no doubt become a popular spot for tourists. A sloping elevator is also included to ferry visitors directly to the top level. The studio stated that the structure lifts the visitors from the surrounding square and reveals views across Hudson Yards and Manhattan from 80 platforms arranged around its perimeter. Copper-colored metal wraps the soffits, reflecting people standing or walking in the plaza below, while the materials inside such as concrete are much darker and in keeping with the urban environment. The “Vessel” sits at the heart of Hudson Yards, in the middle of a landscaped plaza by Nelson Byrd Woltz and surrounded by glass skyscrapers that are all either complete or nearly there. The most recent to open was Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rockwell Group’s “15 Hudson Yards,” which is attached to the expandable cultural venue known as “The Shed” – set to start its programming from April 5, 2019. Describing the structure, Heatherwick Studio group leader and partner Stuart Wood said, “It’s not a building, it’s not a sculpture, it’s not the artwork, and yet it has scale and relevance to all of those typologies... In a way, we’re thinking of this as a piece of furniture. Its ongoing use will evolve, quite naturally.” https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more