WSJ reports that “a person familiar with the matter” claims that Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry have been tapped to design buildings for the megaproject’s second phase, due to rise over the west side rail yards [...] There’s little information beyond that, but 2018 is the year that co-developers Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group are due to start work on the platform that will cover the west side yards — Curbed

Heatherwick Studio employs architects, but Heatherwick is not an architect. His work could be described as a celebration of never having absorbed, in a formal architectural education, dogma about designing things to be flush and taut. “There’s a Harry Potter-esque, Victorian quirkiness in the work,” Ingels said. “An element of steampunk, almost.” — The New Yorker

In April, construction began on Hudson Yards’ Vessel, a 150-foot-tall climbable steel structure designed by Heatherwick Studio and its 100,000 pound-components were put in place by crane. Construction on the $200 million “public landmark” has now hit its halfway mark. The structure includes 154 geometric-lattice linked flights of stairs, 80 landings and will able to hold 1,000 visitors. — 6sqft

In its scale, this faintly quaint, eloquently designed contraption aspires to conjure up the spirit of those 19th-century exemplars of elegant engineering like the Brooklyn Bridge or the Eiffel Tower: industrial-era monuments of structural form, both necessary and sufficient, ingenious but not space age, encapsulating the aspirations of a city. — NY Times

Hudson Yards has been making headlines in recent months...But immediately to the northwest, another tower that’s been in the making for an equally long period of time may have just received a boost to become the tallest of them all. A new rendering of the Moinian Group’s 3 Hudson Boulevard has surfaced, showing both an updated design for the building itself, as well as the addition of a 300-foot spire, that would make the supertall the tallest in the neighborhood. — New York Yimby

[W]hile only the skeleton of the six-level structure [...] has been completed so far, there are already some elements that set The Shed apart. The most obvious of these is a telescoping shell on wheels that serves as both a façade for the gallery spaces and a flexible canopy that can be extended to enclose a public plaza [...]“This project is bone and muscle and there's no fat,” said the architect Elizabeth Diller — The Art Newspaper

Kenneth A. Himmel, president of Related’s mixed-use division Related Urban, said in a statement, “Exceptional dining experiences are extremely important in curating not only the restaurant collection, but the new neighborhood we are creating, and we are thrilled with the caliber of chefs and restaurateurs that will be coming to Hudson Yards. These chefs and restaurateurs represent the most creative and visionary leaders both in this industry and around the world.” — 6sqft

Construction on the Hudson Yards supertall set to replace the McDonalds at the corner of 34th Street and Tenth Avenue will begin sometime next year...Standing 985-feet tall, the building will divided into three distinct sections stacked one atop the other...The design team has also planned what it’s calling a “halo” to be located atop the building...The interiors are comprised of column-free floors that span at least 50,000 square-feet, and each floor can accommodate at least 500 people. — ny.curbed.com

[Dubbed “The Shed”,] The 18,500 square metre venue has six storeys and can “accommodate the broadest range of performance, visual art, music, and multi-disciplinary work”. A cultural centre will be encased in a 34m-high outer shell that can slide on rails to double the ground space. The building includes two large-scale column-free galleries comprising 2,320 square metres of museum-quality space, a 500-seat theater and event and rehearsal spaces. [Completion is due] in 2019. — globalconstructionreview.com

Everything is spiraling into place for Tishman Speyer.

The developer officially filed plans Thursday for the Spiral, an office skyscraper that is slated to cost $3.2 billion. [...]

It is being designed by Bjarke Ingels , the Danish architect behind the 2 World Trade Center redesign and VIA57. — therealdeal.com

Big, bold and basket-shaped, the structure, “Vessel,” stands 15 stories, weighs 600 tons and is filled with 2,500 climbable steps. Long under wraps, it is the creation of Thomas Heatherwick, 46, an acclaimed and controversial British designer, and will rise in the mammoth Far West Side development Hudson Yards, anchoring a five-acre plaza and garden that will not open until 2018. Some may see a jungle gym, others a honeycomb. — the New York Times

A study commissioned by the developer indicated that total economic output of the companies projected to occupy Hudson Yards will contribute $18.9 billion to the city's gross domestic product. [...]

Many projections in the report are also contingent on a host of economic indicators in the city, including demand for Class A office space. Out of the 10.4 million square feet Related will have to lease up, so far it has locked in commitments from tenants for 4 million square feet. — crainsnewyork.com

The observation deck won’t be finished for a few years yet. If you want to see the future of New York, walk north along the High Line, round the curve at the rail yards, and turn your back to the river. Amid the highway ramps and industrial hash of far-west Manhattan, a herd of cranes hoists I-beams into the sky. This is Hudson Yards, the largest private real-estate development in United States history and the test ground for the world’s most ambitious experiment in “smart city” urbanism. — Shannon Mattern | Places