For a decade I had gone to the Big Apple during the month of October and due to the COV-19, the tradition was not continued in 2020. New York City is always a transitional place that tears down the old and at times transforms it. During the past few years PhotoPlus has enhanced my reasons to visit it but in 2020 it was cancelled.
Hudson Yards is a new development inaugurated in March 2019
in the West Side of the City. It consists
of the East and West Yards with the former inaugurated in March 2019 and the
latter to be completed by 2025 if ever due to the present COV-19 impact in the
economy. It is a privately developed
complex (if you want to believe that since about $6 billion came from various
governments’ tax breaks). It was built
on a platform over the yards and tracks of the various railroads servicing the
city, a great engineering accomplishment.
The Vessel is an artistic/architectural marvel that has no practical purpose other than an attraction to anchor the whole Hudson Yard’s complex. It can be visited for free and to reach the top there is a 2500 spiral staircase but for the faint at heart there is also an elevator. I would have named it the beehive instead that I saw under its construction and couldn’t figure out what it was going to be. It is a marvelous structure but underwhelmed by the surrounded edifices; it would have been more awesome if located in an open space just next to the Hudson River.
The Shed also part of the Yard’s complex is a movable cover
that when opened forms a 2-storied space called the McCourt designed to hold
open space events with a seating capacity of 500. It is mounted on 8 wheels that carry the
weight of a steel/plastic shell of 8 million pounds and can be retracted in
about 5 minutes. Second image below
shows the roof of the Shed looking up to surrendering buildings that host
apartments and office spaces.
Neiman Marcus was the anchor retailer for the complex with a
50-year lease that just operated for just 16 months since it went bankrupt due
to the COV-19 impact and the transition to E-commerce. At the time of the visit there was a large display
of mannequins…a shame to see it all gone.