Architecture here is I think a mixed bag but the complex stilll might work. If people go there stuff will happen particularly in good weather. With the HiLine dumping people there, the vessel attracting visitors, and The Shed drawing folks for their array of shows it could mature into a vibrant area of town. Though I might have made an array of different choices it doesn’t really matter very much if it adds life to what was a dead zone. Like many of my reactions to development in this city, I think we’ll just have to be patient and see what happens. People are not predictable!
2 Likes
Don’t forget the Javitz Center is right nearby - that draws huge crowds over the course of the year and historically there was nothing else around. I believe it’s being expanded as well and IMO it serves as a huge co-anchor to the West Side along w/ HY. As a result of the 7 train extension (which would not have happened w/out HY and vice-versa), the Javitz Center is no longer in narnia. Give the area 5 more years when everything is built out and it’s going to be a lively area. With all the crowds you’ll have some street vitality in due time. It won’t be quite as sterile as some of as may think. It’s a huge net win for the City.
6 Likes
Funny how some of you are worried that this area is not vibrant enough. Meanwhile, you just know it won’t be long before NIMBYs will be complaining that this area is too crowded.
5 Likes
Just because something is expensive does not mean it’s good.
Also do you read anything I (or others) write or do you just want to argue?
I have said that I like the Vessel, I love 35 Hudson Yards, I like the Shed, It’s the other crap surrounding the good stuff that I don’t care for (like the mall). There are many things I like but hate the fact that the ugly stuff somehow always finds a way to ruin the party.
That’s the stuff I criticize and you should to.
4 Likes
You are being impossible. You are the one that brought up “cheap” therefore I countered that this was in fact not cheap but expensive. Never did I say expensive was necessarily good.
You don’t like the mall so what did you want in its place? Retail is necessary because they knew that they need foot traffic otherwise it would be a dead zone after the workers leave and luxury apartment dwellers are not exactly the walking the street type.
Office occupants also desire nearby stores so without retail, the office space would not be as attractive to tenants.
Furthermore, that mall space is stunning, not “crappy.” Your whole whining about this is just ridiculous.
4 Likes
“Cheap” as in “not well designed.” I’m sure they spent a fortune on interior finishings but that doesn’t mean the buildings look “luxurious.” Curb appeal is an afterthought these days which is why most buildings look “cheap”
Also you can make up all the excuses you want but i’m still not doing to defend something that came up short when it cold have been bette. I want every building to be world class because in todays global economy having a cool, hip, world class city means everything. And will for the entire 21st century.
Global talent wants to move to the best cities and the “best cities” start with the best architecture.
2 Likes
If “this scale architecture is always bad” is the best defenders of Hudson Yards can do, HY is in trouble.
HY is built as a suburban ‘interior court’ style office park with what new yorkers once coined a “turd in the plaza” back when they would stick some modern art in a pops. I’m tempted to sketch out a simple redesign that keeps all main features and buildings but isn’t this, to make the point. But then what would i be opening myself to?
2 Likes
Haha do it.
Also if that scale of architecture is always bad then maybe we shouldn’t build at that scale.
2 Likes
Forget it. It’s pointless talking with you.
1 Like
We can agree to disagree. Keep it civil.
3 Likes
This article has a point, how did NYC allow something like HY to happen? The city as been asleep at the wheel on design for who knows how long, in part because there is nothing in between developer$ on one end and nimbys on the other…
“The suddenly infamous megadevelopment may not just be a crisis for architecture and urbanism, but also a crisis for architectural criticism. Where was the pushback when it could have mattered most?”
2 Likes
Critics don’t speak for everyone, or even most people (and not even most urban-minded folks)…
On a side note, I had visitors from LA last week and they loved the Vessel, the Plaza (which isn’t even complete) and Hudson Yards. 
4 Likes
Cuozzo gives a much more balanced review and he is right. The public loves this place.
5 Likes
When the master plan came out for the two yards, I was one of the biggest critics (on other NYC development forum sites) of what I thought was the return of the failed superblock. I wanted the site to bring back the Manhattan grid. I did not like all the open space meandering around the towers, especially in the upcoming second phase. It felt like a modern version of the towers-in-the-park.
But now that I get to see the actual finish product, I have changed my mind. Firstly, unlike the towers-in-the-park, the open space here are open to the public. Non-residents generally don’t use the open areas in those mid-century red brick housing projects, which are depressing and ugly.
Second, also unlike the housing projects which is only residential, this place is the incredibly mixed use: office, residential, hotel, stores, restaurants, arts, entertainment and of course a public attraction, the Vessel.
Third, how desperately do we need another regular gridded through-street NYC block? There are these type of nondescriptive blocks all around Hudson Yards and yet none of the critics bothered to write about them. They instead decided to spend their time attacking the one place that supposedly is so awful. 
3 Likes
Another balanced and I believe, more unpretentious review.
Ironic (or maybe understandably) that it takes an outsider to appreciate Hudson Yards? From the Chicago Tribune
6 Likes
as far as I can tell this article trashes it, compares to dubai and las vegas?
1 Like
Gimme a break. That “The Point” review appeared extremely pretentious, but then again, by calling something pretentious you’re assuming a certain level of sophistication and disingenuousness in the writer. You can’t measure that. But hey, I’m not a millennial writer fresh out of the U of Chicago.
I will say this, all these so called reviews keep comparing it to Rockefeller Center. This is no Rockefeller Center. There is a human scale streetwall in Rockefeller Center. The scale is a lot more intimate. In Hudson Yards they took all that and put it in the mall. In my humble opinion the mixing of scales determines whether megaprojects fail or succeed.
2 Likes
What’s wrong with Dubai and Las Vegas?
2 Likes
Haha Exactly. Dubai and Vegas are awesome.
2 Likes