Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

More Than Sculpture, Heatherwick’s Hudson Yards Hive Is Art that Anchors Public Space

September 15, 2016 by Marion Maneker

Yesterday, Hudson Yards revealed plans for Thomas Heatherwick’s $150m Vessel, a vertical public space akin to the city’s wildly popular High Line that now anchors the West Side.

It’s hard to classify this kind of structure. Vanity Fair’s architecture writer, Paul Goldberger, says it was one of the city’s best kept secrets until yesterday:

Heatherwick has figured out how to combine the showmanship of a Ferris wheel with the architectural power of a monumental staircase. I suspect people will want to start climbing up it the minute they see it. There are 2,500 steps, and the latticework design means that there are an almost infinite number of routes you can take up and across and around and through it as you climb. When it is filled with people it will look like a giant beehive.

Related Companies, the real-estate behemoth behind Hudson Yards, is calling it an “urban landmark” for the time being, which I suppose is better than thinking of it as the world’s largest Stairmaster. Stephen Ross, the 76-year-old chairman of Related, clearly wanted something more than just an opportunity for public fitness. Like most big-time developers, he has a serious case of Rockefeller Center envy: he wants his project to be its 21st-century equivalent. Ross was perceptive to see that the brilliance of Rockefeller Center’s design was not only in its architecture but also in its public space, that combination of Paul Manship’s great Prometheus statue and the ice-skating rink. Hudson Yards, too, is getting a public square, a five-acre landscape designed by Thomas Woltz, but Ross wanted it to be punctuated by something more than sculpture. He asked several designers for proposals, and was smitten with Heatherwick’s idea and with the notion that it could become a symbol not only of the Hudson Yards project, but also of the city itself.

The Mystery of Thomas Heatherwick’s Top-Secret Hudson Yards Project  (Vanity Fair)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Artelligence for November 27, 2017Artelligence for November 27, 2017
  • Australian Collector Peter Elliott’s Estate Opens Season with White Glove SaleAustralian Collector Peter Elliott’s Estate Opens Season with White Glove Sale
  • Miami Art Stick UpMiami Art Stick Up
  • Cecily Brown Hires an AgentCecily Brown Hires an Agent
  • Baldessari Gets His DueBaldessari Gets His Due
  • Female Artists in the Market, the View from LondonFemale Artists in the Market, the View from London

Filed Under: General

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Cave Painting Porn Discovered
  • Basquiat's Last Girlfriend
  • Royall Collection of Black Contemporary Artists to Sell At Phillips
  • Christie's to Sell $12m Yves Klein to Benefit The Water Academy
  • Aboudia, Zemba Luzamba, Dickens Otieno Anchor Contemporary African Art Sale at Artcurial in Marrakesh
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor