Stairway to Nowhere (nickname of Vessel at Hudson Yards)

“Vessel” is the name of the Thomas Heatherwick-designed structure at the Hudson Yards on the West Side of Manhattan, opened on March 15, 2019. The honeycomb-like structure has 154 flights of stairs.
   
A nickname was bestowed on it before it even opened. “A $150 Million Stairway to Nowhere on the Far West Side” by Ted Loos was printed in the New York (NY) Times on September 14, 2016. “Stairway to Nowhere: On the Pleasure of Hating Thomas Heatherwick’s ‘Vessel’ in Hudson Yards” was published in Art News on March 18, 2019.
 
Another nickname for the Vessel is “The Shawarma.”
 
 
Wikipedia: Vessel (structure)
Vessel (alternately called Hudson Yards Staircase) is a public structure and landmark that was built as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project in Manhattan, New York City. The concept for Vessel was revealed in 2016. Construction started in April 2017. The structure topped out in December 2017 and opened on March 15, 2019.
 
The elaborate honeycomb-like structure rises 16 stories and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings that visitors would be able to climb. Designed by the British designer Thomas Heatherwick, Vessel is the main feature of the 5-acre (2.0 ha) Hudson Yards Public Square. It is expected to have a final cost of $200 million.
         
New York (NY) Times
A $150 Million Stairway to Nowhere on the Far West Side
By Ted Loos
September 14, 2016
By the look of the renderings officially unveiled on Wednesday morning, New York’s next significant landmark may be the city’s biggest Rorschach test, too.
 
Big, bold and basket-shaped, the structure, “Vessel,” stands 15 stories, weighs 600 tons and is filled with 2,500 climbable steps. Long under wraps, it is the creation of Thomas Heatherwick, 46, an acclaimed and controversial British designer, and will rise in the mammoth Far West Side development Hudson Yards , anchoring a five-acre plaza and garden that will not open until 2018. Some may see a jungle gym, others a honeycomb.
 
But Stephen M. Ross, the billionaire founder and chairman of Related Companies, which is developing Hudson Yards with Oxford Properties Group, has his own nickname for “Vessel”: “the social climber.” And the steep price tag Mr. Ross’s privately held company is paying for Mr. Heatherwick’s installation? More than $150 million.
 
New York Yimby
Related Unveils Thomas Heatherwick’s Honeycomb Sculpture At Hudson Yards       
BY: REBECCA BAIRD-REMBA 4:00 PM ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2016
(...)
Heatherwick claims the design of the vessel was influenced by ancient Indian stepwells. But the Times—which got the first crack at the design with an exclusive this morning—compared the sculpture to a jungle gym and a honeycomb, in a piece with the revealing headline “A $150 Million Stairway to Nowhere on the Far West Side.”
   
Twitter
John Leavitt 🌹
@LeavittAlone
So let me get this straight, it’s a public “sculpture” that requires a timed ticket to use, is a stairway to nowhere, and called “the vessel”.
This is like when London got a luxury building literally called The Shard, right?
10:02 AM - 20 Feb 2019
 
Art News
Stairway to Nowhere: On the Pleasure of Hating Thomas Heatherwick’s ‘Vessel’ in Hudson Yards
BY Andrew Russeth POSTED 03/18/19 4:15 PM
In 1671, the French chef François Vatel, distraught because the seafood course at a 2,000-person banquet for Louis XIV had been delayed, killed himself. That anecdote sprang to mind this past weekend as I stood atop Vessel, British designer Thomas Heatherwick’s 150-foot-tall sculpture in the plaza of Hudson Yards, the hybrid office park, condo haven, and luxury mall that officially opened last week in Manhattan.
   
Twitter
Mel Singer
@MelanieSinger
More Mel Singer Retweeted Alexandra Schwartz
A spot on description “You are there to climb the Vessel, Thomas Heatherwick’s shawarma-shaped stairway to nowhere…” Mel Singer added,
Alexandra Schwartz
@Alex_Lily
Hudson Yards is a private space masquerading as a public one—and vapid to its hollow core. More words by me on that: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/hudson-yards-is-the-hotel-california-of-new-york …
3:56 PM - 26 Mar 2019
 
Wonderful Engineering
ARCHITECTURE
New York’s Strange Stairway To Nowhere Just Got Completed
by The Engineer
March 30, 2019
Vessel by Heatherwick Studio has been completed finally and is now open for public in Manhattan, New York City. It rises to a height of 45 meters and is made of steel. The copper-colored structure is comprised of 54 interconnecting flights of stairs, eighty landing, and 2,500 steps. It offers views of the Hudson River and the city.
 
The Sunday Times (London, UK)
What New Yorkers really think about Hudson Yards
Developers say the $25bn Hudson Yards will create more than 55,000 jobs and contribute an estimated $19bn to the Manhattan economy each year, but locals are a little more sceptical.
By Daniel Bates
The Sunday Times, March 31 2019, 12:01am
(...)
Like everything at Hudson Yards, it is not for the faint-hearted. It has 2,500 steps with 80 landings, which make it a mile-high climb — thankfully, there is a lift — and has earned itself the nickname “The Stairway to Nowhere”.