“The Vessel” New York City’s Newest Landmark Opens

(Billy Francis LeRoux)

The ever changing landscape of New York City just unveiled its’ most recent addition. It’s being called many things including “ The Eiffel Tower of New York” , “The Wastebasket”, and “The Beehive”. The 150 million dollar “sculpture” called “The Vessel” opened March 15th at the site of the largest and most expensive real estate project in American history which is Hudson Yards. Hudson Yards is located between W30th & W34 streets and extends between 10th & 12 Avenues. It is a 16 building complex sitting on 28 acres of prime Manhattan real estate and cost 25 billion dollars to construct. It is a mixed use project consisting of residential & commercial buildings and is being built by American real estate developer Stephen Ross who also owns The Miami Dolphins.

(Photo: Billy Francis LeRoux)

“The Vessel” is the centerpiece of the project and is a series of 154 interwoven staircases which the public can climb and experience new views of Manhattan, The Hudson River, and New Jersey. Designed by 49 year old British design architect Thomas Heatherwick, the structure is receiving mixed reviews and criticisms. One of the largest criticisms (and one they didn’t plan for) was the restrictive photo policy of the structure which granted the project owners rights & permissions to all photos without compensation to the photographer. Buried in the fine print of admission tickets was a clause forfeiting your ownership right to your photos as well as your right to sue. This policy received a huge uproar from the photographic industry and was revised once and will most likely be revised again. Despite all the criticisms, Hudson Yards & The Vessel will undoubtedly be the number one NYC “must see” this summer and into the future.

Tickets for access the “ The Vessel” are free of charge but must be reserved online as only 700 people are admitted at a time. Free tickets are made available for two week time periods and is currently booked. Each day at 8am a new day for reservations opens up, however each day at 9:30 limited same day tickets are made available on site.