Hudson Yards Has Landed in NYC!

@_HudsonYardsNYC
@OxfordPropGroup

Last Thursday we were invited to get a ‘Sneak Peek’ of Hudson Yards, New York’s newest neighborhood before it opened to the public, and it was definitely the party of the season, maybe year!

PREVIEW NIGHT

The evening featured a culinary experience from some of the world’s top Chefs, first-to-New York global fashion retailers, exclusive access to an immersive art exhibit featuring original artwork inspired by Hudson Yards and live music by legendary New York City performers.

FOOD
Jose Andres’ Spanish Bazaar, Mercado Little Spain
David Chang’s Convenience Store, Peach Mart
Anya Fernald’s Northern Californian, Belcampo
Thomas Keller’s American, TAK Room
Michael lomonaco’s Hudson Yards Grill
Eunjo Park’s Korean Forward, Kāwi
Costas Spiliadis’ Greek, Estiatorio Milos & others!

FASHION
Coach
Forty Five TEN
H&M
M.GemI
Muji
Stance
Zara & others!

Neiman Marcus, the first in NYC, had a night of fun themselves…see here! 

ART/PERFORMANCES
Culture Corps – Featuring original artwork Inspired by Hudson Yards
Blackout
Brooklyn United
Caleb Teicher & Company
DJ Paul Sevigny
Industrial Rhythm
Marvillous Beats
Syncopated Ladies
Waffle NYC

OPENING DAY/WEEKEND

The next day, on Friday, March 15^th at noon, Hudson Yards officially opened to the public, marking a historic moment for the City of New York. Hudson Yards is developed by Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper served as master of ceremonies for the Grand Opening program which included remarks from U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer; Stephen M. Ross, Chairman of Related Companies; Gary LaBarbera, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York; Blake Hutcheson, Chair of Oxford Properties Group and President of OMERS; and Thomas Heatherwick of Heatherwick Studio.They were joined on stage by the beloved Big Bird as they officially opened the neighborhood with the launch of a confetti cannon.

Live performances by singer and songwriter Andra Day, Dancers of The Ailey School, and the National Chorale, The Professional Performing Arts High School Choir, marked the extraordinary occasion. One hundred notable New Yorkers from civic leaders to Broadway stars, sports icons to fashion designers, media personalities to artists, cultural principals to chefs and corporate heads gathered in in the Public Square and Gardens to take the inaugural walk up Vessel’s 2,500 steps.

First walkers included José Andrés, Carmelo Anthony, Daniel Arsham, Tony Danza, Roger Goodell, Robert Hammond, Thomas Keller, Steven Kolb, Henry Kravis, Padma Lakshmi, Michael Lomonaco, Curtis Martin, Debi Mazar, Bill Pederson, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, Hilary Rhoda, Adam Silver, Martha Stewart, Adam Weinberg and Ali Wentworth. A ribbon-cutting at The Shops & Restaurants also marked the officially opening of New York’s newest center for shopping and dining destination.

Throughout the Opening Weekend, New Yorkers were invited to opening celebrations with numerous public performances including presentations from the Dancers of The Ailey School; the Haiku Guys, poets that create complimentary Haiku’s on any topic; Taro’s Origami, intricate and unique origami mementos; Caricature Artist A.E. Kieren, an undercover illustrator creating candid sketches in the moment; The D.R.E.A.M. Ring, a community-oriented dance company performing the Brooklyn-born street dance style Flexn; Silhouettes by Cindi, live creation of unique paper silhouette mementos; in addition to various DJ’s playing.

Hudson Yards is also home to industry leaders across nearly every business sector. 10 Hudson Yards is home to Guardian Life Insurance Co., L’Oréal USA, Tapestry Inc., The Boston Consulting Group, SAP, VaynerMedia, Intersection and Sidewalk Labs.

55 Hudson Yards is home to Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Engineers Gate; HealthCor Management; Milbank LLP; Point72 Asset Management; Silver Lake; Third Point LLC; MarketAxess; and Mount Sinai Health System.

30 Hudson Yards is home to Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts (KKR), WarnerMedia, Related Companies, Oxford Properties Group, Wells Fargo Securities and DNB. 35 Hudson Yards will be home to Equinox’s headquarters including fitness, Soulcycle, and Hospital for Special Surgery. 50 Hudson Yards will be home to BlackRock’s world headquarters.

Tenants have begun moving into 55 Hudson Yards and 30 Hudson Yards, two large-scale commercial towers, and residential occupancy is underway at 15 Hudson Yards. 10 Hudson Yards opened in May of 2016. The opening of Hudson Yards, built atop the MTA’s John D. Caemmerer West Side Storage Yard, brings together for the first time the West Side and the neighboring districts of Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen.

A world-class collection of architects and designers collaborated on Hudson Yards, including:  Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Elkus Manfredi Architects; Foster + Partners; Heatherwick Studio; Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates; Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects; Rockwell Group; and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

SUSTAINABILITY

A model for the 21st-century urban experience, Hudson Yards is an unprecedented mix of buildings, parks, utilities and public spaces that combine to form a connected, responsive, clean, reliable and efficient neighborhood. Planned as the first LEED certified neighborhood, Hudson Yards is home to a first-of-it-kind microgrid and two cogeneration plants that will save 24,000 MT of CO2e greenhouse gases from being emitted annually by generating electricity and hot and chilled water for the neighborhood—more than twice as efficiently as conventional energy sources.

Additionally, nearly 10 million gallons of storm water will be collected from building roofs and public plazas, then filtered and reused in mechanical and irrigation systems. The development of Hudson Yards also provides for over 1,300 new or permanently preserved affordable units onsite and in the neighborhood, 14 acres of public space and a new K-8 public school.

GIVING BACK

Once fully developed, Hudson Yards will contribute nearly $19 billion annually to New York City’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and nearly $1 billion annually in State and City taxes. The companies and buildings at Hudson Yards will bring over 57,000 jobs to the new West Side neighborhood and Hudson Yards also estimates that, over the next six months, upwards of 600 new jobs will be filled by the developers and management team to provide essential services at the development, most of whom will be represented by SEIU 32BJ, plus thousands of additional jobs at restaurants and other campus businesses.

Developers created the Hudson Yards Hiring Network, an innovative public-private collaboration designed to identify and recruit talent from New York’s most in-need populations. The initiative has already placed hundreds of New Yorkers in new jobs and expects hundreds of more jobs to be filled over the next few months.

The initiative brings together four City agencies – Small Business Services/Workforce1, The New York City Housing Authority’s Resident Economic Empowerment and Sustainability, Human Resources Administration, The Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, along with 20 of the City’s leading workforce and human services agencies: The Bowery Mission, BronxWorks, CEO Works, Defy Ventures, Doe Fund, Fedcap, Fortune Society, Grant Associates, Green City Force, Henry Street Settlement/Lower East Side Employment Network, The HOPE Program, Hudson Guild, Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow (OBT), Osborne Association, Restoration Plaza, St. Nick’s Alliance, STRIVE International, Urban Upbound, WF1 for Veterans and WINNYC.

Additional benefits to the City include over 3,000 new affordable housing units accounting for 28% of all new housing in the district.

Now that Hudson Yards is officially open, what can you look forward to?!

• The Public Square and Gardens, one of the signature spaces at Hudson Yards, containing five acres of public plazas, gardens and groves designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects in collaboration with Heatherwick Studio. The new park space seamlessly connects to the High Line, Hudson Park & Boulevard and Bella Abzug Park, creating a continuous chain of open spaces on the West Side from Gansevoort Street to Times Square, making it the largest network of public spaces developed in Manhattan since Central Park. The Public Square and Gardens is one segment of the 14 acres of open space at Hudson Yards.
• Vessel, the centerpiece of the Hudson Yards Public Square and Gardens, and the City’s new urban landmark designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio. Comprised of 154 intricately-interconnecting flights of stairs, 2,500 individual steps and 80 landings, Vessel offers the public a one-mile vertical climbing experience and some of the most unique views of Manhattan’s West Side. Free entrance with timed ticketing details are now available at HERE. Those who have experienced the structure will be encouraged to submit ideas for a permanent name from their mobile devices as they exit Vessel.
• The Shops & Restaurants, New York City’s premier shopping and dining destination located at 20 Hudson Yards. The one-million-square-foot retail center brings together an unparalleled collection of shopping and dining experiences found nowhere else in New York, including offerings from leading brands in every category from luxury to fast fashion, first stores from many digitally native brands and imaginative cultural exhibitions. The culinary collection offers comprehensive and complementary experiences for morning, noon and night, across all food types and price points. Don’t forget Snark Park, the first permanent exhibition space from New York-based design studio Snarkitecture. More of Dining here and Shopping here.

Additional highlights of the neighborhood still set to open over the upcoming months include: The Shed on April 5th; the Equinox Hotel in June; and Edge, the highest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere, expected to open by early 2020.