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.
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 aesthetic involved with that,” Community Board 4 Chairman Lowell Kern told the Times. “But you’re trying to balance an artistic aesthetic versus loss of life, and there’s no choice there.”
Although there was some initial speculation that the Vessel might permanently close to visitors and remain on-site as a sculpture exclusively, officials at Hudson Yards eventually decided to let the pedestrian portion remain open after consulting with outside advisors and local politicians on the issue throughout the winter.
Tickets to the Vessel will be available for purchase starting tomorrow to visitors in compliance with the new policy limiting admission to groups and pairs. A message from the Born this Way Foundation will adorn them, reading simply: “Each of you matter to us, and to so many others.”
18 Comments
Repetition of expanding and contracting spaces going in a loop. An immersive experience of manic depression/addiction.
At this point jumpers are the bigger attraction. To facilitate that they should add a diving platfrom and a pedestrian-free landing zone.
Think NASCAR, where people pay to see horrific crashes. Ticket prices could be set accordingly.
Pretty gross joke Miles... considering 3 people lost their lives here.
They didn't lose them there, that makes it sound like an accident. They ended themslves there, at the most public example of a truly sick society. The entire Hudson Yards project caters to a tiny minority of people who are absurdly rich at the expense of the vast majority. I view it as a protest, and instead of providing improved conditions for all citzens they are going to charge entry fees.
No surprise Related is using tragedy to justify a $10 ticket for this supposedly public attraction.
How much city, state, and federal subsidy money and tax breaks did they receive at Hudson Yards again?
now it's pay to die, the fee could be a deterrent?
That's exactly how it works. Deterrence so they will jump somewhere else. Gotta protect the real estate prices.
The cost of Hudson Yards (in dollars). I guess you can add to this 3 lives as well.
https://www.economicpolicyrese...
Imagine the $6 billion or so in subsidies applied to health care, public works jobs, etc.
The Vessel reminds me a lot of Marjorie Taylor Greene. In fact, it even kind of looks like her.
It thrusts out in swollen figure and draws attention to itself—
thus gets a lot of attention.
It turns things upside down.
It has marginal contact with the ground, with reality.
It serves no purpose and does nothing.
It symbolizes nothing.
And, of course, it is hideous.
We should start calling it MTG. I fear there is a larger implication here about how our culture works now.
Good comparative criteria, but she follows a very long, sad, storied list of officials who co-qualify.
Like Heatherwick, she has tricked the game to the max, taking cues from you-know-who. And keep an eye out. We haven't heard the last from her yet, not by a long shot. She may well become, by raw data, one of our most recognizable politicians. I dread the results. Heatherwick has caused similar damage on the cultural landscape.
when people were contemplating a name for this thing, I jokingly suggested “assisted suicide”.
Looks like the desiccated exoskeleton of a giant insect. And about as attractive.
the thing that bothers me most about this project is that it’s not even nearly as good of a view deck as the roofs of the many many other buildings that are much much taller, like duh...the Empire State bldg...this is like “let’s create the second lowest observation deck in the city...”. It’s just not very ambitious for all it’s glitter
Great - the suicides caused a ticket price of $10
- I would boycott this ridiculous art piece !!!
I feel like I'm reading an AIA article about ADA, where hyper simplification is blatant. Broadcasting this approach is disappointing coming from Archinetct. Blaming a building's guardrail height for suicide is like blaming guns for random violence: The underlying problem is mental health. Why does our society continue to do this? Why do we say "homelessness" when the rampant plague causing most homelessness is drug addiction? Let's separate our subjective opinions of architecture from the fact that no amount of gun restrictions will save us from violence stemming from insanity, no guardrails will protect us from suicide caused by mental health, no amount of free housing will save us from slaves of addiction roaming the streets.
That you shitposting on every one of these vessel items, must mean you are working for the dipshit that designed this neo-lib, capitalist death trap. Then you go off on other shit tangents, as if you know what the fuck you are talking about. Answer this for me, who kicked over the rock you oozed out from under, I want to time travel and kill them in utero, at the third trimester.
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