Archinect - News

The Vessel to reopen with improved safety measures

2024-04-15T11:44:00-04:00

The Vessel has announced it will again be open to visitors in New York City later this year after upgraded anti-suicide safety measures are installed in response to a spate of tragedies that have befallen its existence since being inaugurated in March of 2019. The attraction has been closed since 2021 and will reopen with its uppermost level kept inaccessible to the public.

The New York Times reported a representative from Related Companies, which manages the Thomas Heatherwick-designed property, as saying a “floor-to-ceiling steel mesh” barrier would be installed. It will replace existing barriers that were only waste-high and not "cut-proof," as the new fencing is understood to be made.

"While we think it took Related four lives too many to make these physical adjustments, these are the changes we requested, which will allow for prioritizing the safety of everyone who visits the Vessel," Manhattan Communit...

Bechtel commits $7 million to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention partnership to stop construction worker suicides

2024-03-08T15:13:00-05:00

Earlier this week, engineering and construction giant Bechtel and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) announced a multiyear partnership dedicated to preventing construction worker suicides.

The partnership aims to reach 500,000 U.S. construction workers over five years through industry-specific programs and resources. Bechtel has reportedly committed $7 million to the AFSP, which is the largest pledge ever received by the Foundation and the largest single donation ever made by Bechtel. The endeavor aims to combine Bechtel’s industry knowledge and AFSP’s national network, education, and prevention strategies.

As noted by Bechtel in a press release, the construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates of any profession in the U.S., with the number of suicides being almost five times higher than the number of lives lost in job site safety incidents. This is according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Bureau of Labor St...

Golden Gate Bridge finally installs anti-suicide nets after years of delay

2023-11-07T12:51:00-05:00

Construction of the lingering suicide prevention upgrades is wrapping up on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The project's long road to culmination was covered by the New York Times recently as contractors work to finish installing the netting system, which was more than 80% in place as of September.

Work began in August of 2018 after an additional $124 million in funds needed for the project was eventually raised. It then hit further delays in the form of a contractor’s breach-of-contract lawsuit arising from significant cost overruns, which drove the installation's final price from $142 million to the $400 million final reported estimate.

Some have framed the project as emblematic of the “wrong approach” to suicide prevention, saying they are susceptible to second attempts and that money is better distributed through the city’s mental health network. Dennis Mulligan, the General Manager and...

The Vessel at Hudson Yards is reopening after a string of suicides

2021-05-27T21:22:00-04:00

Hudson Yards is reopening The Vessel this week with a renewed focus on suicide prevention following a rash of incidents last year.

The Vessel was closed in January after three people took their lives inside the 150-foot sculpture over a period of 15 months.

Harm-reduction trainings have been added along with a number of other security precautions including a ban on solo entry, signs promoting suicide prevention, and added staff, which developer Related Companies says will be funded by a new $10 ticket fee.

Previously on Archinect: Hudson Yards Vessel closed following another suicide

Related Companies did not offer to raise the waist-high barriers that line the walkway inside of Thomas Heatherwick’s centerpiece sculpture. The move would have mirrored similar prevention measures taken recently at NYU and the George Washington bridge with some success, according to the New York Times.

“I understand that the Vessel is seen as a work of art and architecture, and there’s a certain aestheti...

Hudson Yards Vessel closed following another suicide

2021-01-13T13:04:00-05:00

The Vessel, the spiraling staircase at Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s Far West Side, was closed to visitors on Tuesday, a day after a 21-year-old man jumped to his death in the third suicide in less than a year. It was unclear when the 150-foot structure, the vast development’s centerpiece, would reopen to the public.

According to the NYT, the Vessel sculpture at Hudson Yards, which opened in March 2019, will remain closed "until further notice."

19-year-old jumps to his death from the Vessel in Hudson Yards

2020-02-03T00:27:00-05:00

Police officers on the scene Saturday night asked visitors climbing on the 154 interconnecting staircases to leave the structure. It closed 30 minutes before its usual 7 p.m. shutdown. On Sunday, the site reopened to the public.

Construction on Golden Gate Bridge suicide barrier has begun

2018-08-09T14:37:00-04:00

Construction has begun on a steel net to prevent people from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, after years of debate over whether such an obstacle would mar the bridge’s romantic image. For at least the next two years, crews will toil throughout the night to build a coarse web of marine cable beneath the Art Deco span that is both an international symbol for engineering beauty and a magnet for suicides.

"Oakland companies Shimmick Construction Co. and Danny’s Construction Co. won the contract to design and build the net for $211 million — about three times what the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District Board of Directors had proposed when it put the project out for bid in 2014," the Chronicle reports.

Golden Gate Bridge needs additional $124M to build suicide barrier

2016-10-04T14:09:00-04:00

Roughly 25 people each year jump to their deaths from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, which prompted city leaders to authorize a plan to erect a kind of suicide-prevention stainless steel cable netting twenty feet below the bridge's deck. The netting, which is painted gray to blend in with the water below, has worked wonders on other suicide-prone perches, including the Prince Edward Viaduct. As Global Construction Review reports, the problem for the Golden Gate is that the bids for the construction have come in about $100 million more than the city anticipated (plus a +/- $20 million contingency fund). The project is on hold until January 9th to allow the city to hustle up the additional funding.

Other notable San Francisco design news:

Architects constitute the fifth most likely profession to commit suicide

2016-07-06T21:06:00-04:00

Less depressing than construction, not nearly as happy-making as arts, design, entertainment, sports and media: according to the CDC, architects are the fifth most likely to commit suicide in comparison with members of other professions, especially if you're a male architect (data for female architects was unavailable).

The study chose to focus on 12,312 suicides that took place in 17 U.S. states in 2012. According to the CDC report, "Occupational groups were stratified by sex, and rates of suicide were calculated for each group using denominators derived from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey March Supplement (5), which includes a question about the person’s primary occupation during the previous calendar year."

For more on mental health in architecture:

Suicide rates are higher in rural areas than in cities, but why?

2015-11-03T13:59:00-05:00

Rural adolescents commit suicide at roughly twice the rate of their urban peers, according to a study published in the May issue of the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Although imbalances between city and country have long persisted, “we weren’t expecting that the disparities would be increasing over time,” said the study’s lead author, Cynthia Fontanella, a psychologist at Ohio State University. “The rates are higher, and the gap is getting wider.”

"Suicide is a threat not just to the young. Rates over all rose 7 percent in metropolitan counties from 2004 to 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In rural counties, the increase was 20 percent."

A Digitally Inspired Veil, Intended to Save Lives, Appears at N.Y.U. Library

2012-08-20T17:06:00-04:00

Among facets that critics may seize upon — and, this being N.Y.U., there will certainly be critics — is that the screens express technology’s new primacy, all but obscuring traditional forms of scholarship behind a cascade of random data. Critics may also discern a feeling of defeat in having to undertake such a fundamental alteration in the hope of saving students’ lives.

Legendary Artist Mike Kelley Dead at 58, an Apparent Suicide

2012-02-01T15:25:00-05:00

Artist Mike Kelley has passed away at his home in Los Angeles, having apparently taken his own life. The tragic news was confirmed to BLOUIN ARTINFO by Helene Winer, of New York's Metro Pictures gallery, a long-time associate of the artist.