The Ides of March marked the official opening of the Hudson Yards project on the west side of Manhattan. The built-from-scratch neighborhood is comprised of 26 million square feet of new office space, 20,000 units of housing, of which almost 5,000 units will be affordable units, 2 million square feet of retail, and 3 million square feet of hotel space.
In 2005 and 2009 the area was rezoned from manufacturing to commercial and residential, which started the ball rolling. The land for the new site was created by decking over the MTA’s John D. Caemmerer West Side Storage Yard, which is used by the trains of the Long Island Railroad. The development will also provide a connection between the neighborhoods of Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. The No. 7 New York City subway connects to the site at 34th Street and 11th Avenue.
The grand opening was hosted by Hudson Yards developers Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group. Components of the complex include the 5-acre Public Square and Gardens, an interactive landmark temporarily known as Vessel, and The Shops & Restaurants, a 1 million-square-foot retail center featuring a collection of more than 100 diverse shops and culinary experiences. There’s two large-scale commercial towers, and residential occupancy is underway at 15 Hudson Yards.
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. Sustainable design was also a driving force behind the project. Planned as the first LEED-certified neighborhood, Hudson Yards is home to a microgrid and two cogeneration plants that will save 24,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually while generating electricity and hot water for the neighborhood.
Additionally, nearly 10 million gallons of stormwater 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 on site and in the neighborhood, 14 acres of public space and a new K-8 public school.
