The Thomas Heatherwick sculpture that will grace the public plaza at Hudson Yards will cost $200 million and “will become to New York what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris," said Hudson Yards developer Stephen Ross on Monday.
Its design has been shrouded in secrecy, and will “hopefully,” remain so at least until September, Ross said.
That’s when the developer expects to unveil the design of a sculpture poised to occupy a plaza “bigger than Trafalgar Square.”
“It will be very iconic,” said Ross, the chairman of Related Companies. "And they’re very bold statements, I know that.”
Citing a source who saw the Heatherwick design, in 2015 a New York Times critic said that Heatherwick “envisioned a ‘vessel’ that could occupy a large part of the plaza, shot through with dozens of stairways. Shaped like a chalice, it would rise higher than the adjacent, cavernous Culture Shed, the 100-foot-high international arts center also planned for Hudson Yards.”
Construction is expected to be complete in 2018.
Heatherwick is also designing Pier55, the Barry Diller-funded island off Hudson River Park.
In 2013, Ross put the Heatherwick price tag at up to $75 million.
He made today’s cost estimate at a breakfast hosted by Crain’s New York.
