Thomas Heatherwick, the British architect, has unveiled a plan for what has been dubbed “New York’s Eiffel Tower” (a €134 million giant staircase), soaring 16 storeys high in the centre of Manhattan.

Heatherwick, designer of the London 2012 Olympic torch, was commissioned to build a structure at the heart of what will be the city's largest development since the Rockefeller Center was built in the 1930s. 

He described his proposal as a huge climbing frame with 600 tonnes, 154 individual flights of stairs, 80 landings, and with 2,400 steps.

The structure is the centrepiece of a €178 million, 09 Ha redevelopment of the city’s Hudson Yards – an industrial area in the west of Manhattan, encircled by the High Line walkway.

Currently under construction in Monfalcone, Italy, the bronzed-steel and concrete pieces that make up what Mr Heatherwick has dubbed “Vessel” will not be assembled on site until next year – but were displayed at a glitzy launch in New York on Wednesday, attended by Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York.

 

Description of project by Heatherwick Studio

On 14 September 2016 Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group announced Heatherwick Studio’s design of Vessel, a new public landmark for the Hudson Yards development in Manhattan.

Due for completion in Autumn 2018, Vessel has been commissioned as the centrepiece for the largest development in New York City since the Rockefeller Center. Rather than just be something to look at, Heatherwick Studio‘s design undertook the challenge of creating a landmark every inch of which could be climbed and explored. Vessel will lift the public up, offering new ways to look at New York, Hudson Yards and each other.

Its 154 interconnecting flights of stairs, 2,400 steps and 80 landings will create a mile’s worth of pathway rising up above the public plaza. It will stand 150 feet tall, with a diameter of 50 feet at its base, widening to 150 feet at its top. Currently in fabrication in Italy, it is constructed of a structural painted steel frame with its underside surfaces covered by a polished copper-coloured steel skin.

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Design architect
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Thomas Heatherwick
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Project Leader
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Laurence Dudeney
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Team
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Einar Blixhavn, Charlotte Bovis, Antoine van Erp, Felipe Escudero; Thomas Farmer, Jessica In, Nilufer Kocabas, Alexander Laing, Elli Liverakou, Luke Plumbley, Jeff Powers, Matthew Pratt, Peter Romvári, Ville Saarikoski, Takashi Tsurumaki, Ivan Ucros Polley.
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Group Leader
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Stuart Wood
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Thomas Heatherwick established in 1994, Heatherwick Studio recognised for its work in architecture, urban infrastructure, sculpture, design and strategic thinking. Today a team of 180, including architects, designers and makers, works from a combined studio and workshop in Kings Cross, London.

At the heart of the studio’s work is a profound commitment to finding innovative design solutions, with a dedication to artistic thinking and the latent potential of materials and craftsmanship. This is achieved through a working methodology of collaborative rational inquiry, undertaken in a spirit of curiosity and experimentation.

In the twenty years of its existence, Heatherwick Studio has worked in many countries, with a wide range of commissioners and in a variety of regulatory environments. Through this experience, the studio has acquired a high level of expertise in the design and realisation of unusual projects, with a particular focus on the large scale.

The studio’s work includes a number of nationally significant projects for the UK, including the award-winning UK Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, the Olympic Cauldron for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and the New Bus for London.

Thomas is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects; a Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum; and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Royal College of Art, University of Dundee, University of Brighton, Sheffield Hallam University and University of Manchester.

He has won the Prince Philip Designers Prize, and, in 2004, was the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry. In 2010, Thomas was awarded the RIBA’s Lubetkin Prize and the London Design Medal in recognition of his outstanding contribution to design.

In 2013 Thomas was awarded a CBE for his services to the design industry.

 

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