On 14 September 2016 Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group announced Heatherwick Studio’s design of Vessel, a new public landmark for the Hudson Yards development in Manhattan.

Due for completion in Autumn 2018, Vessel has been commissioned as the centrepiece for the largest development in New York City since the Rockefeller Center. Rather than just be something to look at, Heatherwick Studio‘s design undertook the challenge of creating a landmark every inch of which could be climbed and explored. Vessel will lift the public up, offering new ways to look at New York, Hudson Yards and each other.

Its 154 interconnecting flights of stairs, 2,400 steps and 80 landings will create a mile’s worth of pathway rising up above the public plaza. It will stand 150 feet tall, with a diameter of 50 feet at its base, widening to 150 feet at its top. Currently in fabrication in Italy, it is constructed of a structural painted steel frame with its underside surfaces covered by a polished copper-coloured steel skin.

Concept Phase

At the epicenter of the square sits a structure temporarily known as Vessel, a new kind of public landmark: social, engaging and interactive, meant to be entered and explored. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio, Vessel is comprised of 154 intricately interconnecting flights of stairs—2,500 individual steps—and 80 landings. The dramatic design of Vessel creates a kind of stage set for New Yorkers and visitors from around the world. Standing 150 feet in the air, Vessel was fabricated in Monfalcone, Italy and arrived on Manhattan’s West Side after 15 days at sea, a brief stay at Port Newark and a five-hour barge trip across the Hudson River. Vessel was constructed from a steel frame that was covered by a copper-colored steel cladding. It was designed to lift the public up and offer a mile’s worth of pathways and a nearly infinite number of ways for visitors to engage with and experience New York, Hudson Yards and each other.