A brand new city in our backyard

One thing about New York which always amaze us is how it is constantly changing. Look away for what seems like an instant, and - bam - the view has completely changed!

Having been away for just a few years, an entirely new part of the city has grown up in the backyard of the apartment in Chelsea, where we have stayed during our last visits.

The area is called Hudson Yards and it's the largest private real-estate development in US history spanning seven blocks from 30th to 34th street between 10th and 12th avenue

It is still far from finished, but from our windows, we can now see the rising spires in this brand new  area

When we last visited New York in 2016 the area looked like this

The first tower - 10 Hudson yards - was months away from opening and the rest of the building sites were just marked by the regiments of cranes

Now it looks like this - 10 Hudson Yards is now almost hidden behind other highrises forming a tiara of towering glass at the northern end of the High Line park

One of the remarkable buildings in Hudson Yards is The Shed - an arts center designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro which from afar looks like a building draped in a quilted blanket.

(An aside; Charles Renfro lives just upstairs from the apartment we live in. He must have almost  the same view of the Hudson Yards spires as we do!)

Getting closer, you can see this blanket, the outer shell, sits on a set of enormous wheels, connected to a short track, and it turns out, the shell can actually move along this track and expand or diminish the volume of the building according to the current need for space.

When you look at the massive shell, you will imagine it must take enormous power to move it, but in actuality, at least according to the architect, it can be moved by a motor with the mere horsepower you would find in an ordinary Toyota Prius.

It really blows your mind

Next to the Shed stands the centerpiece of Hudson Yards - the copper-colored Vessel, designed by Thomas Heatherwick. The structure, which cost US 50 million has no practical function. It is a kind of climbing frame for grown-ups and their kids and it  looks like wickerwork made of Escher-esque repetitive staircases 

When you stand below, looking up, you absolutely want to climb it, but unfortunately, that is impossible for the time being. When it opened, several persons committed suicide by jumping over the rails  and it is now closed while the architect looks into how to make it more secure

 

10 Hudson yards is a massive tower designed by global architect Kohn Pedersen Fox, who also made the master plan for the whole Hudson Yards.

So massive - I couldn't fit it into one frame!

Way up, you see a small triangle sticking out from the building. This is The Edge - the observation deck - and from here, deep below it,  you can see it has a glass floor, where people can stand and look straight down into the void below their feet.

It must be awesome to experience, but we haven't really had the time to stand in the long line leading up there.

Finally - the Danish starchitect of BIG fame, Bjarke Ingels, also has a part in Hudson Yards

(Another aside: Rita and I are especially fond of Bjarke Ingels, as we were actually the very first in the entire world who bought an Ingels-designed apartment. We live in the V-house in Copenhagen, which he designed, when he was a mere kid!)

BIGs 66-story  building, called The Spiral, is still under construction, but you can begin to see the cascading stepped terraces, which when planted with trees and shrubbery will form a green spiral around the building towards its top