Is Hudson Yards Good For New York?

[Music] these huge new skyscrapers in manhattan are built on a specially designed platform over a live rail yard the massive hudson yards development is everything new york big bold and outrageously ambitious at 25 billion dollars the new neighborhood is the largest and most expensive private real estate development in u.s history it's transformed manhattan's iconic skyline and pushed the bounds of engineering generating tens of thousands of new construction jobs but it's also garnered a reputation as an elite district in a city already marked by stark economic inequalities and it's only half complete there are big plans for expansion but the lifeblood of hudson yards luxury real estate shopping and dining has been ravaged by the pandemic as the city tries to recover the mega development's future is hanging in the balance [Music] hudson yards now dominates western midtown and the cluster of gleaming skyscrapers is among the tallest in the city the eastern yard which opened in 2019 spans west 30th to west 34th street between 10th and 11th avenue the western yard the proposed expansion will extend the mega development further west over the remaining train tracks for decades plans to redevelop the area around the rail yard were devised and dropped in preparation for new york's bid to host the 2012 olympics the city rezoned the area in hopes of building a new stadium and accompanying buildings the olympic bid and stadium plans ultimately fell through but the vision to build an entirely new neighborhood remained the winning master plan from related companies and oxford properties group painted a picture of a district built around office buildings upscale shopping restaurants parks and the arse high profile companies like facebook hbo and wells fargo all signed office deals and developers said the project should contribute nearly 19 billion a year to new york city's gdp once completed in 2019 hudson yards opened itself up to the public with much fanfare celebrities politicians architects developers acquire dancers and even big bird were all there for the grand opening but over the last year the area hasn't necessarily embodied the grand vision laid out in the master plan the pandemic has seen office life shopping dining and live performances all put on hold and criticisms emerged over how the project used tax breaks and government programs to fund itself it's not exactly desolate at this point but it's not vibrant either i live about a half a mile north of hudson yards and i go everywhere within a half mile radius except there because there is really no uh reason for a person who doesn't live or work there uh to go there unless they are an ultra high-end shopper which i am not the pandemic really dealt a blow to what was already a risky venture the eastern yard is home to 1.8 million square feet of residential space with apartments in the luxury buildings going for millions of dollars in 2018 there was an affordable housing lottery where new yorkers could apply to be selected for one of roughly a hundred subsidised units if they made between twenty two thousand and a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year beyond housing hudson yards has also given rise to some new landmarks in the city the edge a triangular observation deck a hundred stories in the air is the tallest in the western hemisphere you can do yoga sip frose or take a photo lying over the glass floor back on the ground the vessel designed by heatherwick studio has been a controversial yet undeniably ambitious public installation and the shed is a cultural center with a retractable outer shell that can double the building's footprint when pulled out over the plaza next door phase 2 calls for 6.2 million square feet of new development including residential buildings an office complex and a kindergarten to eighth grade school according to the new york times phase two appears to be on hold as the developers are seeking two billion dollars in federal funding to build the 10-acre platform that will serve as the base of the new development related the properties developer has not yet responded to our requests for comment most of the affordable housing in hudson yards was supposed to be built in phase 2. so that is a rationale for completing the project but i think for the city it's also a lesson to learn that we should never allow the public benefit to come in phase two of a majorly financed public private development now as you might have guessed building an entirely new neighborhood and some skyscrapers over an active rail yard is not easy you're not just building a new development on land you're also building the land itself the western yard will be built on a 10 acre platform similar to the one constructed over the eastern rail yard hundreds of pipes will be drilled into the bedrock between the train tracks and then filled with concrete to create the pile foundations they'll take the load of everything above and pass it down to the much stronger bedrock beneath the surface soil trusses connect sections of the platform where it's not possible to drill into the ground [Music] at some points the hudson yards crew only has an hour or two to bring their rigs to site drill into the bedrock of the rail yard and then remove the rigs before the trains come through accuracy can come down to a fraction of an inch just across manhattan to the east parts of park avenue were actually built on a similar platform system around grand central terminal to build something like this they have to basically play a giant game of tetris where you're establishing the pillars in places that are unused by the train lines below working around an active rail yard is a delicate dance planning construction around train schedules so they can run without disruption and all those trains generate a lot of heat a ventilation system of massive fans typically found in jet engines are nestled between the platform and the rail yard to help cool the space to protect the plants above the rail yard from cooking a system of tubing helps circulate cooling liquid below the surface when you're building on tight time frames over moving trains there's little room for error and digital modeling is crucial to making the most of your time on site it's difficult to put into words the volume of digital information that's generated when building a project like this if it were all printed out and stacked up it would probably be another skyscraper in its own right and a pretty unsustainable one of that from an engineering and architectural perspective hudson yards is already a modern-day new york city icon but the success of new developments is really measured by their impact on the lives of the people that live in the area what i would like to see is not a decrease in the ambitiousness of our planning programs but rather to use that ambition to meet the actual social needs of people here so we're going to do another project like hudson yards um we should be looking at at what the what the needs of people are in terms of housing in terms of jobs in terms of open space and all the rest and not sort of building for uh the highest end and assuming that it will trickle down with such a huge area of inner city land available for development and near endless money at the team's disposal hudson yards appears to have all the tools it needs to become a vibrant new neighborhood but its lasting success can only be determined by the culture and community that grows there to be truly embraced as a new new york city neighborhood hudson yards will need to deliver what the people of manhattan really need not just what developers think they want if you enjoyed this video and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction make sure you subscribe to the b1m [Music] you

Channel: The B1M

Views: 871,506

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, hudson yards, nyc, new york city, megadevelopment, the edge, the vessel, the shed, chelsea, high line, new york, manhattan, brooklyn, 30 hudson yards, heatherwick, world trade center, NYC, eastern yard, western yard

Id: vmlKdyXP4nk

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021