The Shed to Open in NYC in 2018
New York City is all set to get a shiny new addition. The Shed is scheduled to open during 2019 inside the much-anticipated Hudson Yards, at the spot where the new development meets the High Line.
While The Shed won’t quite be scraping the sky like the Empire State Building or Chrysler Building, its spectacular design is sure to become an iconic slice of the Big Apple’s cityscape.
The building takes a bit of architectural inspiration from Cedric Price’s fantastical Fun Palace, and it will steal your breath away from the second you spot it.
The Shed will actually be two structures: one stout base and a shimmering shell that can slide back-and-forth depending on the event being held inside. (Hey, I warned you it was spectacular)
Even though it will tip the scales at over 4,000 tons, the outer shell will slide on on a double-wheel track. There will be a revolutionary rack-and-pinion drive that will shimmy it back-and-forth on massive wheels. (We’re talking six feet in diameter big wheels, here).
The re-positioning of the shell should only take around five minutes, with it moving at a quarter-mile per hour during its relocation. The enchanting exoskeleton will hover over the adjacent plaza to create a 17,000-square-foot light, sound and climate-controlled grand hall.
How grand? There will be enough space under the roof for a standing audience of up to 3,000 people or for 1,250 people to sit theater-style.
As impressive as the function of The Shed will be, it’s the form of this sliding exterior that is bound to leave you in awe.
It will be made of a dazzling diagonal grid of steel, which will then be filled in by a patchwork of translucent polymer pieces. This polymer has all the thermal properties of glass but weighs considerably less. The state-of-the-art material will still allow light to flow in and, despite being lightweight, will be able to withstand all mother nature can throw at it—including hurricane-force winds.
The five-story stationary section of The Shed will be home to two massive galleries, a sub-dividable black-box theater and a “creative lab” that will be free to use for developing local artists.
According to The Shed’s website, the venue will be: “New York’s first multi-arts center designed to commission, produce, and present all types of performing arts, visual arts, and popular culture. Driven by experimentation, innovation, and collaboration, The Shed will be a center for artistic invention, bringing together leading artists working in every art form with leading minds in the humanities and sciences.”
After any performance, you will be surrounded by recreational opportunities galore in Hudson Yards.
Hudson Yards is the largest private real estate development in the history of the United States and the most expansive in New York City since Rockefeller Center. In addition to The Shed, Hudson Yards will be home to a roster of restaurants and retail shops, thousands of residential units, a luxury hotel and over a dozen acres of public space.
Source: Travel Pulse
