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Take a sneak peek at Hudson Yards ahead of its March opening

Yards and Yards of Hudson

Take a sneak peek at Hudson Yards ahead of its March opening

The first phase of Manhattan’s massive Hudson Yards project opens to the public in only a month, and AN took a behind-the-scenes look at the new neighborhood.

Much of the office space in 10 Hudson Yards, the Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF)–designed glass tower at the corner of 30th Street and 10th Avenue, is occupied, but work on the neighborhood’s public-facing and retail components will continue until the March 15 opening. After that, the Shops and Restaurants at Hudson Yards, the seven-story, one-million-square-foot Elkus Manfredi Architects–designed retail hub will be open for business. Besides multi-floor retail outlets for a number of fashion stalwarts and brick-and-mortar space for formerly online-only retailers, the second floor of the Shops will hold a permanent exhibition space curated by Snarkitecture.

Photo of a bronzed sculpture
The Thomas Heatherwick–designed New York Staircase up close. Once completed, the 150-foot-tall sculpture will feature a mile of climbable staircases. (Jonathan Hilburg/AN)

The Snark Park will hold open its inaugural show, Lost and Found, on March 15 when visitors will weave between crumbling columns—limited edition recreations of which were given away at KITH’s SoHo store on January 31. That retail integration will follow through to all of Snarkitecture’s future installations in the space, and developer Related is planning to rotate exhibitions three times a year, with associated “retail drops.”

The Shops building, which is wedged between KPF’s 10 and 30 Hudson Yards buildings, also features a cogeneration plant that can convert waste heat into thermal energy. All of the buildings are networked in a micro-grid and can send their waste heat to the plant, creating a system that uses less energy than comparably-sized towers. An outdoor dining terrace will also let visitors peer into the Thomas Heatherwick–designed New York Staircase (formerly known as the Vessel) as they eat. The entire building is designed to be porous and allow foot traffic in from the adjacent buildings, the 34th Street 7 train station via an underground corridor, and to visitors from the High Line.

Glass towers rising behind brick buildings
The glassy towers of Hudson Yards are springing up next to the brick and masonry buildings of Hells Kitchen and the Meatpacking District. (Jonathan Hilburg/AN)

To the site’s west is the still-uncovered rail yard, which will eventually be decked over for Hudson Yards’ second phase. Whereas the first phase is 80 percent office and retail space, and 20 percent residential, the second phase will flip those numbers and create more housing. Related claims that the project will create 1,000 affordable units overall, though there is no target completion date for the second phase.


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