Construction To Begin On Hudson Yards 'Vessel'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Construction is set to begin Tuesday on a crucial element of the Hudson Yards mega project on Manhattan's west side.
Work will begin on the "vessel," described as an interactive piece of art that will sit in the middle of the public square. The first 10 pieces of the 150-foot-tall steel structure have already arrived from Italy.
The $200 million centerpiece comes from British designer Thomas Heatherwick and is an inverted honeycomb-like structure of platforms and stairways. There are 75 pieces in total, with each piece weighing around 93,000 pounds.
"I think it will be a lot of different things to different people," Related Companies chairman Steve Ross said. "Some people might go up there and get engaged in there -- other people will walk for exercise, other people will walk to partake the in views and just think. I think it's an individual experience."
If you walk all of the centerpiece's 2,500 stairs, you'll end up walking more than a mile, WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported.
Heatherwick's other projects include the cauldron for the 2012 Olympics in London.
Construction on "the vessel" is expected to be completed at the end of the year and open to the public in the fall of 2018.