Everyone is criticizing the Vessel and I want to join in on the fun. But I have never been to the Vessel. So instead of relaying the experience I will discuss it through what I’ve learned about it on the internet: it looks like a shawarma. Let’s not talk about the Vessel itself but the digital presence of the Vessel as it exists through mediated discourse; let’s shave the shawarma.
In jest at the Vessel’s expense, Olly Wainwright posted a meme in which the Vessel and Shed are visually compared to a shawarma and a handbag. Comments on the post from fanboys credit Wainwright for creating an image which is “nothing less than genius” but in reality is a petty image comparison. It is the kind of thing I do a lot, but it is important to recognize that, while funny and entertaining, this type of criticism leaves much to be desired. Everything looks like something else if you just look hard enough. Worse yet, it is the distinct role of the critic to bring conversation beyond a level of “this looks like that” to build robust conversation. I am expecting more details in his ensuing column.
It is certainly fun to play “this looks like that” with the Vessel — especially given a 150 million dollar price tag. But we must categorize this as a certain style of image-making. Whether posted by Wainwright, Adam Nathaniel Furman, or myself (and its memetic distribution as carried on by Jerry Saltz) — this specific meme format produces a form of criticism I’ll call entertaining trash-talk. In the Vessel’s case the spectacle of people-watching and selfie-taking is complimented only by the spectacle of mere insults parading as criticism.
That which turned the Vessel into the shawarma is the same force which named The Gherkin. It is our irrepressible need to turn buildings into representations, our need to form knowledge by constructing models through simplifying things into either their parts or their effects, which are fundamentally familiar to us. This is both the power and pitfall of the meme as device; without backup or stylistic variance it can remain unproductive denigration. The meme offers a potent way of making entertaining quips and jokes which can build momentum around certain positions. Those positions aren’t contained wholly within the meme itself, but espoused through multiple mediums.
Ultimately, the entertaining trash-talk of the Vessel-as-Shawarma is a distraction from the huge development going on in the background. And even further, it distracts architecture critics from projecting their criticism at the real issues. These problems were well-defined by CityLab’s Kriston Capps in The Hidden Horror of Hudson Yards Is How It Was Financed and Kate Wagner’s Fuck The Vessel.
Wainwright and Saltz — together in an immense bubble constantly pressed upon by the unrelenting masses — should be using memes to set a trap to allow their positions as critics to flourish. After all, the best critics are those who are first and foremost considered entertainers.
Ultimately, the entertaining trash-talk of the Vessel-as-Shawarma is a distraction from the huge development going on in the background.
When I read Wainwright’s essay on the matter, I was disappointed to find that he didn’t have much to add about the Vessel directly other than it looks cheap for its relative cost, had some duct tape on it, and “isn’t the worst thing at Hudson Yards.” And while Wainwright was smart enough not to be completely distracted by the Vessel itself and focus on the surrounding development, it leaves me aware of the danger of baseless and unsupported snark.
And while I do hope you are being entertained here as well, there is a downside to producing flimsy and unsubstantiated visual comparisons between buildings and other things. Comparing the Vessel to a shawarma without further unpacking its architectural failures advances the very forces of spectacle and distraction that we bemoan. When it comes to the whole of Hudson Yards, perhaps the most critical thing one can do to the Vessel is ignore it.
Ryan Scavnicky is the founder of Extra Office. The practice investigates architecture’s relationship to contemporary culture, aesthetics, and media to seek new agencies for critical practice. He studied at L'Ecole Speciale d'Architecture in Paris and DAAP in Cincinnati for his Masters of ...
9 Comments
Being a huge fan of Thomas Heatherwick's work, I find myself prejudice towards a more positive outlook on the design of the Vessel itself.
"perhaps the most critical thing one can do to the Vessel is ignore it."
I have to say, that's a bit impossible to ask, don't you think?
Anyway, Thank you for your post btw, you mentioned things I never knew before, and I find myself interested in reading more about the Hudson Yard development, I never knew there was some pretty dark stuff going in the background.
This folie is designed within a Trumpian dream where commoners are told to work hard to "climb to the dream". Once there, you can glimpse at it, feed your Instagram overlord and promptly descend back down to reality.
Seeing how the High line was conceived to revive dead urban space for all to enjoy has spawned the reverse of urban space. Vertical gated suburbs among a city
This folie is designed within a Trumpian dream where commoners are told to work hard to "climb to the dream". Once there, you can glimpse at it, feed your Instagram overlord and promptly descend back down to reality. Seeing how the High line was conceived to revive dead urban space for all to enjoy has spawned the reverse of urban space is truly demoralizing. Vertical gated suburbs among a city
Oh, and comparing the Vessel to the Eiffel tower is ludicrous. The Eiffer Tower demonstrated a feat of construction technology of its time. It was built to commemorate 100 years of the French Revolution. Perhaps in a few decades out society will revolt against the real estate monarchs and we can redesign the Hive/ Vessel to house function and truly public space, instead of being a sitting trophy to top political donors.
So you would rather surrender sovereignty to the state...to supply them with enough power to cease private property...under the loose utopian dream that space will be public...the more likely senario... if god forbid that day ever happens...the swarma will be turned into a public execution space for dissidents from the new commie dear leader...
The irony of course is that the forces that created the city that you long to preserve in its cherry picked idealized moments was built by the forces you now want to extinguish- capitalism
I embrace the spirit of the vessel. I think it’s the only logical way cities will survive. Tourism, spectacle, entertainment...The actual design imo is very underwhelming. I’m not climbing a fake shawarma unless there is some real shawarma and a cold beer waiting
at the top.
Funny thing is that the high tax big gov cities seem to be gentrifying the quickest
Maybe liberals need to listen to what Others have been saying for years. If you create a high overhead city you will create a city that panders to those who bring the tax rev to sustain it. Otherwise it goes bottom up. Common sense
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