I am glad this is not like Rockefeller Center. We already have one of those. We don’t however have anything resembling Hudson Yards. Just makes NYC even stronger by having more variety.
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I totally agree with the author here. I was just there yesterday. I think Hudson Yards is an incredible space and something new, but what makes public spaces like this extraordinary is the ability for people to sit down and enjoy it. As much as I liked being in the spaces, it felt transitory at times, nowhere to sit and enjoy it. It’s like the Oculus. Just my two cents!
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Wait, some people are mad that there are no benches in the Vessel itself? Puuhleeze!! People are really reaching to be critical of the new complex, I feel. (Not directed at you the726.)
As for the Plaza itself, I don’t really see a lack of seating. The plaza is unfinished. It has (and will have) just about the same, if not more, as Rockefeller Center (which is being used as the Holy Grail of plazas for some reason) and more than WTC.
https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/5a270e74f914c353018b8131-750-421.jpg
There will be a lot of cool architectural seating in front of the shed too!
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Whats wrong with Vegas?
Now I know we are on completely different taste levels.
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Las Vegas is one of the greatest cities in the world with some amazing architecture.
Don’t be such a snob.
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hey, to each their own. If that’s your thing then go for it. Both Dubai and Las Vegas are awesome spectacles and a lot of fun for a weekend.
But… it’s just surface. There’s so much more to life! What about mystery? What about character and stories? What about the kind of place you can be by yourself and not feel alone? What about a place that reverberates with the human energy of new york? I feel like y’all need to get back in touch with your spiritual side or something haha!
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Did you… did you read my post?
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Any architectural critic who seriously compares HY to Dubai and Vegas can comfortably be dismissed. They’re nothing alike outside of newness and glass. It’s idiocy.
HY, like Rock Center, is loved by the public and hated by the critics. Louis Mumford, FL Wright, NY Times all practically passed out at the alleged “horrors” of Rock Center in its infancy.
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Came across this. HY seems to me like some retro futurism idea come to life. I’m not necessarily saying its a bad thing I just don’t think it’s on par with what people desire today.
Dubai falls in the same category. I don’t think it’s outright bad I just think it could have been done better.
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You keep on saying how it needs to be done better but don’t offer any ideas. Keep in mind though that you have to work within the parameters, one of which was mandated by the “public” during the planning and approval process, which was to include a certain percentage of open space.
There, now give us your bright ideas.
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I mentioned many things and another person even gave a link to a great project in DC that looks phenomenal.
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Watch out! we’ve got a (gasp) positive review of a ‘mega development’
“In a development largely without Instagrammable architecture, it’s the unlikely Rubik’s cube of uses that gives cause for thanks. Instead of treating the area as a blank slate for a developer’s dream, planners stitched together institutions, homes, entertainment, offices, non-deluxe shopping, cheap food, sidewalks, wide avenues, and narrow streets. The result is neither a new high-gloss enclave nor a bastion of 1970s anarchy, but a place that’s just messy, dense, and motley enough to feels like New York again.”
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And Essex Crossing is mediocre, innocuous, and not even halfway done. Maybe that’s why the “critics” like it - they hate change.
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would be cooler if you engaged in their written argument and not whatever you are projecting it to be
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Sorry if my response isn’t sufficiently “cool”; I know Essex Crossing well and it currently consists of a few mediocre apartment buildings and a Target, following 60 years of vacant land because the “community” couldn’t agree on anything. HY is roughly 1 billion times better.
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You mentioned a bunch of stuff like human scale, which is what townhouses? Is that what you envision here?
That DC link is not even on the same level of development as Hudson Yards in terms of magnitude, sophistication, volume, cost, uses, size, investment, architecture and world recognizability. There’s nothing comparable to Hudson Yards, in the entire DC metro area let alone that obscure little known development (which you had no idea of until someone brought it up here).
Meanwhile, we have plenty of developments (unfortunately) similar to that, from the LIC waterfront to Williamsburg and Greenpoint waterfronts and Battery Park City and the Riverside South developments. There is no shortage of DC-like developments here and they are hardly something to aspire to.
Furthermore, that DC development is hardly “human scale.” The buildings have huge footprints.
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DC zoning laws bar buildings over 12 or 15 floors depending on area. And that’s not going to change; it’s fairly well liked. There is no way a NYC of Chicago can develop in that town. I lived there for many years and the limits cut both ways. The scale is arguably more livable but it causes a huge sprawl in downtown. It’s huge for a metropolitan area that large. The only saving grace is that Metro allows people to get around in it fairly easily. It is lively and now becoming a 24/7 town in several areas. So it is a vibrant place.
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I don’t see anything so special about that DC development that we here don’t have a plethora of. 10-15 story buildings with ground floor retail. That’s like 85% of the new buildings in NYC (actually, most in NYC aren’t even that tall).
If that was built here in Hudson Yards, most of us here would be screaming about how a missed opportunity it is and how boring it is.
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Essex Crossing is actually as jarring and anti-Lower East Side as it gets. The buildings are on block wide podiums and the modern architecture that has no relation with the surrounding tenements could be at home in Any City U.S.A.
This is not even mentioning the big box stores like Target. LOL.
Just goes to show how disingenuous these so-called critics are. They can write up praise or criticism and make it sound credible.
I like Essex Crossing simply because it is finally something that fixes the scar of open parking lots and heal the area but it is hardly the shining example to be using as an inspiration.
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Many buildings in the business areas of DC have ground floor retail. That’s why the city retains some vibrancy at night. It’s not as prevalent as NYC but still quite common.
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