Image: Flickr cc

Developer Related Companies’ high-profile condominium at 520 West 28th Street, designed by the late Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, launched sales in 2015 to a flurry of hype and hubris. The highly-anticipated West Side residence was Hadid’s first ground-up structure in New York City, offering homes that ranged from $4,950,000 to a $50 million penthouse. Crains reports that since that glittering launch, though, only 16 of the building’s 39 units have sold, calling the offering “a rare bust.” The sales figures reflect about a 40 percent sell-through that looks even lower when square footage is considered: The building’s biggest units remain unclaimed, including its three penthouses. Of the 16 apartments that have sold, 14 were bought in 2017. Only two units sold in 2018, and none so far this year.

Will Hudson Yards bring more buyers?

Photo © James and Karla Murray for 6sqft

Update 3/19/19: Related Companies will revise the language of its terms and conditions after facing backlash for its peculiar photo policy regarding the Vessel, Bloomberg reported Monday. “The intent of the policy is to allow Hudson Yards to amplify and reshare photos already shared on individual social channels through our website and social channels,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg.

New York City’s latest landmark is fit for Instagram, its bronzed steel and concrete perfectly popping in photographs against its glassy super tall neighbors. But to take photos of the free and public centerpiece of Hudson Yards, known as the “Vessel,” isn’t actually so free. According to the terms and conditions for the sculpture, written by Hudson Yards developer Related Companies and found online, photos and video footage taken of the Vessel belong to the company, not the photographer.

More here

Rendering courtesy of Related/Oxford.

The announcement Wednesday of a newly-forged framework between developer Related Companies and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York (BCTC) marks the end–at least for now–of a menacing feud between the developer of the $20 billion Hudson Yards megaproject and the umbrella union group representing 100,000 union construction workers. The two organizations have headed back to the bargaining table after a year-long boycott of the project by the labor group which threatened progress on its final phase. The accord, unanimously ratified at a BCTC executive board meeting, represents a new model of collaboration between the development community and skilled workforce.

Find out more

Thomas Heatherwick’s 150-foot-tall, honeycomb-shaped climbable public art installation at Hudson Yards is set to open for public climbing in March along with the complex’s Shops and Restaurants on March 15. Known for some time as “The Vessel,” the bronzed steel and concrete structure has no official title as of yet. As for the former moniker, a Related representative told 6sqft in an email, “It was always a placeholder until the public experienced it. We’re excited to have the public help us with a name.”

Read more

Rendering courtesy of Related/Oxford.

Though it seems hardly a week can go by without a flurry of news from Manhattan’s newest instant neighborhood, Hudson Yards, the west side mega-project–the largest private development in the nation’s history–developed by Related Companies and Oxford Propertied Group now has announced that Friday, March 15th will be its official opening date. In addition to a grand opening celebration, the Public Square and Gardens and the neighborhood’s centerpiece, Thomas Heatherwick’s “Vessel,” are set to open on that date; more importantly, The Shops and Restaurants at Hudson Yards will be officially open.

Off to quite a start

Rendering of 126th Street facing north; image courtesy of NYCEDC

City officials have released long-awaited plans to develop the blighted Willets Point section of Corona, Queens. As 6sqft previously reported, the economic development site within the industrial neighborhood east of Citi Field known as the Iron Triangle was at one point slated for a cleanup of its toxic soil and the creation of affordable and senior housing that would replace a jumble of auto shops and industrial businesses. Finally surfacing almost four months after a task force submitted suggestions to the Econonmic Development Corp. (EDC), the plans contain two development scenarios including a soccer stadium and mixed-use scenario that includes residential development, retail and a school.

Read more

Back in May 6sqft reported on plans for the 15 new gallery spaces in the works next to the Zaha Hadid-designed condo at 520 West 28th Street along the High Line, with the Paul Kasmin Gallery to anchor the project, which will expand into a 5,000-square-foot space with a sculpture garden designed by Future Green on its roof. With the official opening of the new building and inaugural exhibitions of works by Walton Ford and Joel Shapiro come new photos of the gallery and of the sculpture garden being installed.

More photos this way

Rendering via Binyan Studios

A fresh set of renderings was revealed Wednesday of 35 Hudson Yards, the tallest residential tower in the rapidly developing Manhattan neighborhood. David Childs of Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) designed the 92-story supertall, which topped out at 1,009 feet in June. The limestone and glass tower will contain 143 condos, 22,000 square feet of private amenities, and an Equinox club, spa, and 200-room hotel. Following 1,296-foot-tall 30 Hudson Yards, which topped out in July, neighboring 35 Hudson Yards is the second-tallest tower at the site.

Take a peek

Photo via CityRealty

Topping out this week at 1,296 feet, 30 Hudson Yards is officially the second-tallest office building in New York City. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, the 90-story tower sits on the southwest corner of 33rd Street and 10th Avenue. In addition to its sheer size (it’s the tallest in Hudson Yards), the most notable feature of the supertall is its 1,100-foot outdoor observation deck, the highest of its kind in the city and fifth highest in the world.

See the tower

Photo by Joe Woolhead, courtesy of Related Companies

Last month, just after commencing construction, the 1,100-foot-tall observation deck at 30 Hudson Yards made New Yorkers gasp with dizzying construction photos. Now, developers Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group have shared even more sky-high pics of what will soon be the tallest outdoor observation deck in NYC and the fifth tallest in the world. This set shows how the steel and glass sections–each of which weighs between 35,000 to 102,000 pounds–made their journey on barge through the New York harbor, down the streets of Manhattan, and ultimately up the 1,296-foot tower.

See all the vertigo-inducing pics!