The Vessel at Hudson Yard NYC reopened a few months ago.
The Vessel was designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio. It's a large, climbable structure made of interconnected flights of stairs and landings, intended as a public landmark and interactive art piece.
It makes me think of the lithography Relativity by M. C. Escher.
It’s a black-and-white lithograph where gravity seems to have completely lost its rules. The scene shows a strange, multi-level building with staircases going in every possible direction—up, down, sideways—and yet the people in the image move through it as if everything is perfectly normal.
What’s fascinating is that Escher created three different sources of gravity within the same space, so depending on how you orient yourself, the entire perspective shifts. One figure’s floor is another figure’s wall. It’s a brilliant visual puzzle that plays with your sense of space and reality.
Created in 1953, Relativity is a great example of how Escher used art to explore impossible architecture and the relativity of perspective—long before digital tools or 3D modeling existed. You can look at it again and again and still notice new details.
It feels a little the same with the Vessel, walking up and down its stairs, looking up, looking down, trying to see its shape or through it.
The Vessel is a striking, honeycomb-like public structure.
Quick Facts:
Location: Hudson Yards, Manhattan (between 10th and 11th Avenues, at 33rd Street)
Architect: Designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio
Opened: March 2019
Height: 150 feet tall (~16 stories)
Structure: 154 interconnecting staircases, 80 landings, and nearly 2,500 individual steps
What It Is:
The Vessel was intended as a public landmark and interactive sculpture. Its design was inspired by Indian stepwells—ancient water storage systems with tiered stairs—and it invites visitors to climb up and explore the city from various heights and angles. It offers unusual perspectives of the Hudson River, surrounding skyscrapers, and the High Line.
example of Indian stepwell, Image Source Ignant
The Vessel has become a major symbol of Hudson Yards and modern urban design—part sculpture, part spectacle, and a highly Instagrammed icon of New York’s newest neighborhood.
I hope you enjoyed this virtual visit, go see it in person if you’re in the area.
From NYC with love.
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