Climbable sculpture in Hudson Yards in Manhattan closed in 2021 after four people died by suicide
The Vessel, the huge climbable centerpiece of New York’s upmarket Hudson Yards development that saw a number of suicides, is set to reopen later this year with new safety features, according to developers.
The 150ft sculpture, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and built at a cost of $260m, was closed three years ago after four people jumped to their deaths. Besides overall criticism of its design – including descriptions of it as a giant gold shish-kebab rotisserie – the construction was grimly described to the Guardian as “staircase to nowhere”.
Before its closure, Related Companies, the company that controls Hudson Yards, imposed a $10 entrance fee and a rule requiring that visitors do not climb the structure alone. But that plan proved unsuccessful when a 14-year-old boy jumped in front his family.
This garbage structure is the worst blemish on New York in recent history. It’s ugly, conceptually empty, and an abhorrent monument to corruption and anti-humanity.
I didn’t know shit about it besides headlines about suicide. Where does the corruption part come in?
God there’s so much. To start with, the Hudson yards project got greenlit because the developer agreed to build some amount of affordable housing, but they never did it, and were never held accountable for not doing it.
And the suicides aren’t some freak unexpected thing, the developer was strongly warned that it definitely WAS going to cause suicides, and that they should make some changes to the design to prevent it, but the developers wanted it to look the way they wanted and didn’t give a fuck about anyone dying.
And lots more awful shit. The whole place is a scourge on new york
Thanks, bitch-ass Bloomberg.
Good to hear that from someone from New York, I’ve seen it a few times during visits and it never made much sense to me. It’s not really in a great location and any views you’d catch being at the top are blocked by nearby buildings that are taller. It also just looks exhausting to climb it. Like, who really wants to climb 16-stories of stairs for art to see not much from the top?
But let’s say it’s some beautiful work of art that complements the city perfectly…
It’s 150 feet high with no significant safety protections and people were allowed to climb it as long as they brought one other person with them.
Couples commit suicide together all the time.
Fucking insane that this wasn’t considered before they even built the fucking thing.
Sounds like most famous structures in the city. When it was built the locals called it classless and gaudy, including the empire state and wtc. this thing doesn’t do much for me but it’s different and one more thing that makes an aging NYC distinct against new cities with modern architecture. Sure it’s a symbol of wealth and greed. So we’re some of the greatest works left from the Renaissance. However This chapel to euthanasia could be closer to wall Street.
Even the Eiffel Tower was hated and supposed to be dismantled after the World Fair. But due to people being too cheap to even bulldoze the thing, now it’s an icon.
It’s hard to figure out what will be iconic and what is stupid. Since they almost all look stupid.
Similar happened with a pedestrian bridge that my city built with some added artistic features and a huge spire as part of the structure.
It was heavily criticized for years, called ugly, a waste of money, and nicknamed by one newspaper columnist as the “dick bridge”.
But now, a couple of decades later, it is featured in pretty much every promotion for the city, and shows up in just about every tourist vlog and televised sporting event that happens here.
It’s become an iconic part of the area skyline.
Caitlin Doughty and her team put together a documentary 2 years ago. It covers some of the history, and why it’s prone to suicides.
Imagine creating a 150 foot climbable statue, everyone roasts it for being pointless and ugly, and when it finally opens you discover you’ve just built a suicide tower.
That actually sounds like it’s precisely the point of the art.
The rat maze leads nowhere, you climb a tower with no purpose, only to reach the top, and then die.
Seems pretty utilitarian and on the nose. A suicide rollercoaster would’ve taken more physical land/real-estate.
Wait a minute, $10 for this shit?
I think I’d rather go to that Willy Wonka exhibit over in England.
I think that was in Scotland.
You may be right, I was too lazy to go look up/link the article.
Exactly how I fuckin’ felt about it on first view. A giant gold piece of shit to get a little higher than the much nicer, free, highline park right next to it.
Fool and their money, etc.
In case anyone finds this comment, the last time I checked it out I was able to get free tickets. You gotta find the person working there holding a QR code. Scan the code and it auto-adds some coupon code to your booking, making the tickets free.
Looks like something I’ll build in a simulation game and keep the NPC stuck in it.
$260 million for a staircase? I gotta up my grifting game…
And to think I thought that staircases to places were where the money was.
What happened to the big statue of Metro Man in the middle?
Obligatory Conner O’Malley: Hudson Yards Video Game
The best version of this is the one that John Wilson made out of discarded piss bottles
