New York City’s Vessel and High Line

by Marcia Simon, CTA, APR
You’ve got to love New York. Where else do they decide to build a new neighborhood and in couple of years come up with Hudson Yards, aptly named because it’s on the Hudson River overlooking the West Side Yard where Long Island Rail Road trains are stored between shuttles back and forth between “The Island” and Penn Station.

The new neighborhood is billed as “a triumph of culture, commerce and cuisine – a place to live, work, and play.” Skyscrapers housing apartments, high-end retail shops, restaurants and a new luxury hotel are all in the works. Oh, they added a subway stop at Hudson Yards to accommodate the traffic. And if people aren’t flooding in yet to shop, visitors are surely interested in The Vessel.

Contemporary urban designer Thomas Heatherwick created the bronzed steel and concrete Vessel just so people can climb the 2,500 steps of this 16-story recreational sculpture. It’s free to explore with a ticket you can get online or at one of the kiosks at Hudson Yards, although you may have to wait an hour or two for an available time since the number of people at one time is limited. There’s an elevator that makes the Vessel accessible for everyone.

The Vessel is located at the north end of New York’s popular High Line, a public park built on a historic rail line above the city’s west side streets. It runs from 34th Street near the Javits Center to Gansevoort Street, three blocks south of 14th Street. Along the way you can have a seat on one of several benches, or stop for coffee, a smoothie, ice cream or other snacks. Kids seem to like The High Line as much as adults.

For anyone who hasn’t walked the High Line recently, new “spurs” are being added as viewing areas and urban woodlands with a mix of grasses, perennial flowers and shrubs, all of which are native flora.

​Marcia Simon, APR, CTA, is a travel advisor, public relations practitioner and principal/owner of friendlygrouptravel.com. Connect through facebook.com/friendlygrouptravel or welcome@friendlygrouptravel.com.

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