Visited Hudson Yards today.
Strolled into the "mall" where Cartier's and Coach and other high-end stores are located.
The ear-shatteringly loud, pounding hip-hop music made the place a misery. To me, anyway.
Couldn't wait to get out of there.
Might someday like to climb up that good-looking copper structure.
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Chrome and glass, escalators in the center, chain stores, yup, that looks like any other top tier mall. And there are at least 125 of them. And that's the problem. With one retail store after another closing, this over-stored nation doesn't need another mall. Of all the experiences you could house under one roof, somehow it was decided that the best use for people on this planet was to acquire more stuff. And more status signallers, just so we can make the gap between rich and more that much more visible.
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“Proponents of the development say that the area will generate jobs and property taxes that will benefit the city for years to come, and that New York needs to change with the changing times.”
I think we’ve heard this before. Remember Atlantic City?
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it's not the mall. Don't call it a mall. There is no mall so beautiful and tall is this shopping center. It is a beautiful shopping center for beautiful people to come and do wonderful things. It is a shiny and bright place for hard working Americans to spend their money and to give it back to the local economy.
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@Paul but whatever we don’t want to call it, it is still just another shopping mall detached from the rest of the communities, but built for consumers with plenty of disposable income. Everyone else will just window shop. Alas, nothing wrong with being wealthy (they made it and good for them!), but I wish wealthy people are not so clueless and detached from the not-so-well-paid who help make their lifestyle possible.
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So, there's no Dollar Tree then?
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I am 100% the target audience of Hudson Yards - a overconsuming millenial with no children, a high salary, and lots of expendable income that i choose to spend (well, waste, if my husband was describing) on goods and services proffered in this new vertical shopping "experience". Obnoxious, i know, but in the words of Popeye, i am what i am. And i will never shop at a place like this. Why? Because I buy nearly everything online. The only time I enter a bricks-and-mortar store is when they brand doesn't offer e-commerce (Chanel, i'm looking at you). And even then, i'm actively choosing to not go into some labyrinthine mall, i'm going to a store on a street, with fresh air just outside the doors, and an easy escape route. I'd hazard a guess that a lot of my fellow spenders feel the same.
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Based on these comments, most people would prefer we bulldoze Saks, Tiffany’s and most of midtown and replace them with places for “real” New Yorkers:
Duane Reade, bodegas, Ray’s Pizza and Grays Papaya.
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The photos of this mega, glistening commercial enterprise serves to verify that the New York City I once knew is officially extinct. The Shopping Mall. What could more strikingly typify all that Americans once left their home towns and came to New York to get away from?! For NYC of both myth and reality was about a panorama of neighborhoods evolved over time each according to their own vibe into a distinct identity. Small and family run businesses lined the streets staffed by people whose names you knew. And who came to know your name. Now national chain businesses have infiltrated New York their offspring planted down the street from where you live. While it's necessary to acknowledge that change is inevitable it's also necessary to recognize what has been lost in the process.
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"I don’t have to schlep all the way to Dubai to get that kind of energy.”
I can't decide whether that is a mixed metaphor or not.
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The question is how successful is Columbus Circle?
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In 2001, Paul Goldberger wrote that the truly defining characteristic of urban development is the privatization of the public realm. Lamentable because “the essential truth about great cities is that they are deeply, profoundly, absolutely and utterly public,” and public means for everyone and not entirely controllable. That to me is what is so sad about Hudson Yards. Yes, private sector investment was critical, but did it have to yield the apotheosis of privatization, a glitzy mall? Malls are especially pernicious because they can so easily create a safe, antiseptic environment that keeps out the “unevenness, disarray, complexity, mixture of people and things, a certain amount of chaos, [that] are all a part of the price we pay for the extraordinary creative energy that emanates from real cities.” What a disappointment.
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@Joe - Thank you for reminding us of the difference between the charm and "realness" of Bleeker Street - where everyday life and retail are organically intertwined - and the antiseptic high brow of the Yes-It-Is-A-Mall at Hudson Yards. I was at the later today. I had no idea what city, or which country, I was in. All sterile and formulaic and far too precious, in all the worst ways. The street has humanity and soul. The mall has vacuous sheen. Pick your destination carefully...
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As it turns out, I was both in the Hudson Yards "mall" and on Bleecker Street today, having walked from one to the other, and I can tell you that the mall's blasting of pounding hip-hop music plus the sight of newly empty storefronts on Bleecker made my day less than I'd anticipated.
Bleecker Street "real"? Not so much lately.
High-end shops, even more vacant, papered-over windows, and cheese from one end to the other. Hard to figure out why the Army-Navy store had to close. It was the "realest" place on the block after the old French bakery left.
My day out in Manhattan.
It was a relief to get on my B train.
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Mr. Wooster can take a flying leap.
New Yorkers that I know have not worn the myriad problems of the city as a “badge of honor.” They have, however, been waiting for successive city and state administrations to address the crumbling infrastructure. Instead, the subways have been mismanaged for years, with the MTA throwing contradictory budget claims against the wall to see what sticks. Many people would be happy to rid themselves of the discomfort of long commutes if the city and its boroughs were even mildly affordable.
I’m glad to know that 143 happy owners will be able to snatch up pieds-à-terre at 35 Hudson Yards starting at a mere $5 million. Meanwhile, New York City addressed affordability by allowing developers to market units of less than 400 square feet in qualified buildings. Mayor Bloomberg thought it was a great idea. So, peons, welcome to perpetual dorm life.
I’m just happy to know where I’ll be able to get an $800 haircut…that was definitely on my to-do list.
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Wow! Did not expect to find so much negativity in the comments!
I live nearby to all the construction, and have watched this development rise lock clockwork over the past 2 years. Very excited to see it finally open. I can't afford half the stores or restaurants...so I won't go there. Instead all I enjoy what I can, and appreciate the new art / parks / public spaces.
To all the haters I ask this: What is wrong with transforming a useless waste of city space (literally a train yard) into another city hub? West Chelsea was crime-ridden and run down, for decades until being revitalized by the high line. Hudson Yards continues this trend, and further invigorates the city's west side.
I look forward to exploring the new neighborhood.
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@Justin
We mourn what this opportunity cost. What this space could have been had anything other than revenue and wretched excess been considered.
There is an emptiness at the core of this space that no amount of conspicuous consumption will fill. Not even an $800 haircut.
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@Deborah
What it could have been? Last I heard, the alternate was a new football stadium, which would have led to plenty other issues / complaints.
Seems we turned old train tracks and warehouses into something that will last for generations.
I have no plans to get an $800 dollar haircut, or $500 dinner, but I am eager to climb aboard Vessel, see the rotating art installations, and eat at the more affordable food options (Shake Shack, Momofuku chicken, etc.).
And as for the "emptiness at the core", why do you conflate futuristic design with hollow vanity? It's simply the apex of the decade+ revitalization of the high line area with similar, albeit larger architectural style to many of the buildings that line the park.
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@Justin
The design seems not at all futuristic to me.
And the fact that our options were a stadium or a mall? That epitomizes the emptiness of mind and spirit that was involved in this venture.
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It's open season on opinion...but NYC sank $6b into the project so it's in everyone's interest to see it work. Project-wise not dissimilar to the 16m sqft Canary Wharf in London which has been ticking along. The primary developer last had a profit in 2013 with losses since of approx £40-50mln annually. Canary Wharf itself is considered London's financial hub and the project is now well integrated into the urban landscape and has considerably improved what was once an abandoned dockyard. Personally, I think this NY project to be antiquated for the ages but ultimately, once the international headlines fade, the area will become just another part of a busy city.
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@Juvenal
Very glad you mentioned the Canary Wharf in London!
I was there last year and found its public transit system seamless and terrific! Hope Hudson Yards will catch up with London in public transit.
I also rode 7 Line subway into Hudson Yards' station and found it convenient, pleasant, and refreshing, which NYC subway system needs badly!
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I fell in love with New York in the 1960s as a fourth grader and we've been close ever since. Hudson Yards is a mall without soul and not really what New York is about. Give me Bergdorf's or Bloomingdales at Christmas or better yet a walk on upper Broadway near Columbia. I remember when South Street Seaport was the next game changer or worse Trump Tower which demolished a beautiful Bonwit Teller to become an albatross. Hopefully in time it will fade away.
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Hudson Yard is, in every way, antithetical to New York City - a "superblock" which ignored the urban grid, with massive towers totally out of pedestrian scale and ignoring the traditional setback tower. So it's no wonder that its crown jewel is...drumroll...a suburban shopping mall.
It's almost astonishing to me that the developers (and the politicians who handed over billions in tax breaks) are so confident this will work. Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan was the latest attempt and giving New York a "mall" for the ultra-rich. I work right by. It's a ghost town. Utterly dead, stores closing, untold money wasted. When its anchor tenant (Saks) closes after less than two years you know doom is on the horizon.
How will this mall do any better? I don't know a single New Yorker who is thinking "I need to run to J Crew / Kiehls / Cartier, but instead of shopping in the urban fabric of New York on Bleeker Street or Madison Ave or Broadway, I'll take the 7 train to a shopping mall behind Penn Station."
We complain about how New York is becoming a playground for the 1%, and it is. But this is even worse: its a playground that ignores the type of urban experience that makes the city so singular. I don't see this ending well, but of course the developers will be ready to squeeze another round of elected officials dry for their next folly. Will we ever learn?
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@Solaris
You hit it on the head. So goes Brookfield Place, so goes the Shops and Restaurants at Hudson Yards. Who could not have foreseen that?
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Vertical mall is not the future of mall.
Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and etc. is full of these complex alike already.
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If not reading about this being Hudson Yards, it could be any number of "upscale" malls in various locales across the nation . . . been there, done that . . .
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Just what New York City needed. More luxury residences for multi millionaires. Good thing the subway was extended so that doormen, maids, nannies, janitors, cashiers, retail clerks, servers, busboys, and other low wage attendants on the rich can get to work.
It’s an eyesore.
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I am certain that I won't go. I don't want to shop at a giant mall and those stores are all over the city already. How boring. And what an affront to us taxpayers, with all the subsidies going out the window to create something for rich people. Gross.
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This is the most creative use of space the developers could come up with, a mall?
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Continuing the process of turning New York into a massive, expensive playground for the .1% while the subway falls apart.
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Wow, a big mall. How very innovative.
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I don't think they will come. But we'll see...
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Sounds like heaven on earth for the top 10% income earners and a place to avoid for the rest of the planet. But the problem with your new 2 class society is there aren't going to be enough people with disposable income to support financing your fancy new "not malls".
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I see from the photo that there is a Sephora store in "the Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yard".
Well, that makes 16 in Manhattan. Finally, such a desperate need is met.
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Man, I'm tired of soulless, high-end, luxury, 'lifestyle' EVERYTHING. Yawn.
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Nothing here for the average New Yorker then.
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You'd be surprised how many "average" New Yorkers and tourists were there today window shopping, eating, and walking around. Why not? It's clean (if not, alas, quiet). Citarella was crowded. The eateries were crowded.
"Average" people seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Me, the music made me crazy and I left.
I predict it will flourish in its way, and the stores will suck up lack of customers just for the privilege of being there.
5
I think it was a necessary step for New York to move into the 21st century,
As a lot of real estate in the City is getting old in terms of modern office space . Business wise it will be a success if marketing is done right.
Before there was no reason for New Yorkers to go there, maybe now they can visit restaurants or famous retail outlets before they order on line.
You can compare this with Dubai as they also always looking or creating for
The newest trends.
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"vertical retail palace" "street hood" Oh please spare us.
Yes, no doubt hordes will come to visit and gape, but how many of the set that thinks hopping on a luxury jet for a shopping trip to the local Dubai outlet, will actually be able to sustain this project. Most tourists - and locals, for that matter - will not be sitting for $600 haircuts or outrageously priced chicken fingers or picking up a diamond encrusted bauble at Cartier.
Different for NYC, perhaps, and a few new stores maybe, but it's just a mall (gasp) by a new marketing name. Time was when you had to come to NYC to shop at Tiffany, or make a pilgrimage to Dallas to go to Neiman-Marcus. Alas you can do that in scores of mall palaces around the country and globe already. Yawn. Cookie cutter with fancier trimmings.
Will it really earn enough to be sustained? Too early to tell perhaps, but I feel safe in believing that it won't, in the long run, do much of anything for the majority of New Yorkers. Maybe the "Store Closing" signs will also be glitzy and glam, but the end is the same.
22
Is this needed? More importantly, will this work? Retail in all forms is retracting and malls are closing--yes, I know this is "luxury"--but this seems frankly absurd. Why would anyone go here when there is Fifth Avenue? New York's other mall at the TimeWarner Center seems to stay afloat because of it's convenient location and Whole Foods in the basement; the other near Herald Square is forgettable. Why go here? What a waste. Thanks for the article.
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Another museum of the 1% lifestyle. I wonder how many people will actually be able to afford to shop there while the rest of us just go to look. Even thou they sold 60% of the condos how many people will actually inhabit them. My guess most of the sales went to foreigners trying to hide or launder their money.
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I’ll stop by out of curiosity, of course, but I can tell right away—just by looking and the list of stores—that I’ll shop elsewhere. This is Oculus 2, a rich person’s idea of what fun looks like: buying overpriced junk from familiar and ubiquitous brands. Even passing through these kinds of malls gives me agita.
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This is all very nice and shiny and I am certainly not opposed to innovation and progress.
But I do fear for the continued homogenization of New York City. There is the suggestion that we hang on to our "grit" as a badge of honor. I would heartily agree and I am glad we do -- it's what makes us New Yorkers. Places like Hudson Yards are neat and clean and devoid of character, like Times Square has become.
If I wanted to live in Dubai, I'd move to Dubai. But who really wants to do that? It's too darned hot.
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