As Steve is a bit of a New York City real estate geek (it comes with his job), we had already wandered through Hudson Yards shortly after the ‘7’ line subway was extended from Times Square to the area. Only one or two buildings were complete at the time, but now all of phase 1 is nearing completion, with a performing arts hall called “The Shed” recently opened (yes, they’re very creative with names on this project).
Hudson Yards is a massive new New York City development project, costing nearly $20 billion and is still only halfway done, with an estimated full completion in 2024. It offers commercial and residential properties, restaurants, shopping and public/art space all built on a giant concrete slab over an active train yard. It is certainly a magnificent feat of modern engineering and as a New York City local, it has been amazing to track the progress made since the project originally broke ground in 2012.
When the Vessel was finally ready for the public to visit, we knew it was the right time to return and check out the progress that had been made at the site.
BOOKING
The Vessel is free to enter, but requires a pre-booked ticket, which you can obtain on the Hudson Yards website. The Vessel is open Monday through Saturday from 10am-9pm and on Sunday from 11am-7pm, and you can pick an hour long time slot in twenty minute intervals. At the time we booked, you could only reserve a time slot in advance. Currently, they’ve added an option to show up in person on the day of, at 9:30am, to secure an “additional” same day ticket which they make available to the public. We’d imagine getting there a bit before 9:30am would increase your chances of scoring these tickets. When we booked, we were able to find a time slot around sunset, two weeks after the opening ceremony and were happy with our choice, as the weather turned out to be a bit warmer than opening weekend.
You can follow the below link to book your own time slot:
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Upon exiting the Hudson Yards subway stop, you can make a quick right and have the Vessel staring you right in the face, at approximately 150 tall it is hard to miss. Our first thoughts were that the Vessel name seems to be misplaced and the structure certainly looks more like a beehive (or a giant shawarma as some have joked, and who wouldn’t love a giant shawarma?). In fact, there is currently an ongoing process to rename the structure and we submitted “The Honeycomb” as our suggestion. Feel free to click on the below link:
INSIDE
When you are done snapping pictures from the outside, there is a winding ramp that begins on the same side as the new mall for you to walk up to and enter the Vessel, and be sure to have your printed or e-tickets ready to hand to the friendly agent. The Vessel has a capacity limit of approximately 700 people, hence the need to restrict access through the free ticketing process.
Your eye will first be drawn up to focus on the symmetry of the surrounding interior, only for your gaze to quickly re-focus dead center on the crowd and ground in front of you. In the exact center of the Vessel lies an embedded large – blue-glowing – centerpiece which provides great background color and imagery. If you have a wide angle camera or phone (like the Google Pixel 3 wide angle selfie camera), you can point your lens up and take some great photos of the structure with the blue glow in the background. Naturally, this spot gets very crowded, so pick and choose your spots wisely as many other people will have the exact same idea.
You have one of four staircases to then begin your climb to the top of the Vessel. With nearly 2,500 stairs in total, a direct ascent to the top will cover over 600 stairs, so be sure to wear comfortable shoes. An intriguing elevator was installed, which goes to the top along with the curvature of the structure, but it is intended for the elderly or disabled and is fairly slow moving, so we would not wait around for it personally. Of course, you can take breaks like we did, and enjoy the differing views from each landing point. The further you go up, the more the structure spreads out, allowing for some enjoyable photography or video opportunities shot either from down below or up above a subject or object.
The view from the top is truly beautiful as you can see out across the Hudson River towards New Jersey on one end and out across Manhattan on the other and down upon the mall right next to the Vessel. We must note though that once you’re on the top level, there is no covering, so if rain is in the forecast, definitely bring an umbrella and/or rain jacket. Additionally, at 150 feet upon, Steve’s fear of heights started to kick in just a bit, as noted there’s nothing over your head once you reach the top platform. If you’re someone who is also a little wary of heights, keep that in mind. There are handrails to hold on to though for extra support and to ease your worries.
SUMMARY
Whether you are a new local like us, or a tourist visiting New York City, we would definitely recommend visiting the Vessel once, especially if you have plans to visit Hudson Yards. Overall, it’s an interesting “interactive” art piece that is certainly Instagram and YouTube worthy, however, we would not go out of our way to visit it again as there is no real draw to the structure after your first visit.
Have you visited the Vessel yet? Let us know in the comments below and if you have, are you eager to return?
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