Hudson Yards: A Guide to the Towers, the Vessel and the Edge Deck

The Five Main Towers Compared

The table below lines up the five buildings most visitors see from the public square. Heights come from the individual building records, and where two published figures disagree the table shows both. The district's first phase opened in 2019, alongside the mall and the Vessel. One tower sits outside the platform: 10 Hudson Yards broke ground on December 4, 2012 on solid ground at Tenth Avenue and 30th Street, because its footprint did not sit over the rail tracks. It was the first Hudson Yards building occupied by tenants, opening May 31, 2016, and its southern facade cantilevers over the 30th Street spur of the High Line with an entrance directly on the park.

30 Hudson Yards carries the most numbers to reconcile. One record describes it as an 80-story tower, another as 73 floors. Its height is published as 1,270 feet in one source and 1,296 feet in another, and the tower was downsized from an original plan of 1,337 feet. Thornton Tomasetti served as lead structural engineer. Edge, the observation deck, occupies floors 100 and 101 at 1,100 feet.

Building Over Live Rail Tracks

The engineering fact that defines Hudson Yards is the ground itself. The district sits on a platform over the West Side Yard, bordered by 10th and 12th Avenues and by 30th and 33rd Streets, so most of the neighborhood is built above tracks that commuter trains still use. The MTA leased the air rights over the yard for 99 years for $1 billion to the Related Companies and Oxford Properties joint venture in May 2010. The project is described as the largest private development in United States history, projected to cost $25 billion on completion.

The towers carry recognisable tenants. 50 Hudson Yards, finished in 2022 at Tenth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets, houses the headquarters of BlackRock and Meta. 35 Hudson Yards at Eleventh Avenue and 33rd Street is a mixed-use tower with 137 condominiums, an Equinox hotel and an Equinox gym. 15 Hudson Yards is residential, completed March 15, 2019 with Diller Scofidio + Renfro as lead architect and Rockwell Group as interior architect. For the district's role in the city's wider skyline of famous buildings in NYC, Hudson Yards is the newest chapter, and its height figures are still settling as sources disagree on 30 Hudson Yards.

• Master plan: Kohn Pedersen Fox
• Air rights: 99-year lease, $1 billion, signed May 2010
• Groundbreaking: December 4, 2012 at 10 Hudson Yards
• First phase opening: 2019
• Projected total cost: $25 billion

Getting There: the 7 Train Extension

The 7 Subway Extension to 34th Street-Hudson Yards cost about $2.4 billion, and the main tunnel contract of $1.145 billion went to the S3 joint venture in October 2007. The 34th Street-Hudson Yards station opened on September 13, 2015 at 1:00 p.m., in a ceremony attended by Mayor Bill de Blasio. It remains the closest station to Edge, with the A, C and E trains at 34th Street-Penn Station reachable on foot.

The private Hudson Yards tour names it as the closest subway stop to its meeting point at Vessel.

The Vessel

The Vessel is a climbable structure of interconnected staircases designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio, opened in 2019. It stands 150 feet tall with 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps and 80 landings, and it holds about 1,000 people at a time. The form is modeled on Indian stepwells, 50 feet wide at its base and widening to 150 feet at the top. Its 75 steel pieces were assembled in Monfalcone, Italy, shipped to the Hudson River docks, with installation starting April 18, 2017 and topping out in December 2017. The cost is a matter of record with a disagreement: one source puts the final figure at about $200 million against an original budget of $75 million, while another lists US$150 million. The sculpture sits in the Hudson Yards Public Square, a 5-acre plaza with 28,000 plants and 225 trees, landscaped by Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz and free to enter.

Access has a history you should know before you plan a climb. The Vessel closed after suicides in January 2021 and July 2021, and reopened on October 21, 2024 with glass safety barriers. Admission is ticketed, per the structure's own site, with a timed general admission option and a flexible-arrival option, and Hudson Yards directs visitors to buy tickets at vesselnyc.com. No ticket price is quoted here. If you want the climb handled for you, the Private Hudson Yards Tour lists Vessel entry in some of its options, with timed tickets arranged by the operator, from $170 per person for a 2 to 3 hour private walk.

Edge at 30 Hudson Yards

Edge is the observation deck on floors 100 and 101 of 30 Hudson Yards, a Kohn Pedersen Fox tower, opened March 11, 2020. The deck stands 1,100 feet above Manhattan and is a triangular cantilevered terrace on the 100th floor. Its glass floor triangle measures 225 square feet and looks down 1,131 feet to the street, with a 9-foot glass barricade slanted 6.6 degrees outward. One source describes it as the second-highest outdoor observation deck with transparent flooring in the world, after the Cabo Girao Skywalk in Madeira. Edge calls itself the highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere and says it is designed for any weather, with seven indoor immersive installations before the outdoor deck.

Practical details matter more here than at most attractions. Edge closed two days after its March 2020 opening because of COVID-19 and reopened on September 2, 2020. It is entered on Level 4 of The Shops & Restaurants at 30 Hudson Yards, and tickets are date- and time-specific, so you cannot simply walk up. The nearest subway is 34th Street-Hudson Yards on the 7 line. No official ticket price for Edge is printed here. Where a catalog tour sells the deck as an add-on, the Private Hudson Yards Tour offers an Edge upgrade, with the operator arranging timed tickets. The tour's from price is $170 per person and the listing does not say which option that matches. If you want a second high vantage point elsewhere in Manhattan, see the Rockefeller Center tour guide for how Top of the Rock compares as an experience.

The Shed

The Shed is the district's arts center, the Bloomberg Building, standing next to 15 Hudson Yards on city-owned land beside the High Line. It was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro as lead architect with Rockwell Group as collaborating architect. Its defining feature is mechanical: a telescoping outer shell that glides on rails onto an adjoining plaza to double the building's footprint.

Inside, the McCourt space can seat 1,250 people or hold over 2,000 standing. For architecture visitors, the shell itself is the show, and it is worth timing your walk through the public square to see whether the shell is deployed over the plaza or retracted over the base, because the building looks completely different in each position. Entry to exhibitions is through The Shed's own ticketing, which is not covered here.

Seeing All Three on a Guided Walk

Two catalog tours cover the district. The Private Hudson Yards Tour is a 2 to 3 hour private walk with a professional local guide, meeting in front of the Vessel, from $170 per person, with Vessel entry in some of its options and an optional Edge upgrade arranged by the operator. The High Line Walking Tour approaches from the park side: a 75 minute walk, 40 feet above Manhattan, limited to 8 participants at $50 per person, starting at the staircase on West 30th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.

Both carry free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start.

The 7 Train Extension

The closest subway is the 7 train to 34th Street-Hudson Yards. That station opened on September 13, 2015 at 1:00 p.m., in a ceremony attended by Mayor Bill de Blasio. The extension cost about $2.4 billion, and the main tunnel contract of $1.145 billion went to the S3 joint venture. The A, C and E trains at 34th Street-Penn Station are also reachable on foot.

For a fuller picture of how the district was built over the rail yard, see Hudson Yards and the famous buildings in NYC it joined.

The High Line's North End

The High Line ends at 34th Street, so Hudson Yards is its northern terminus. The park runs 1.45 miles from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street, built on a freight railway raised in 1933-1934 that carried its last train in 1980. Friends of the High Line, founded in October 1999, pushed for its reuse. It is free and open from 7am to 10pm between April 1 and November 30, and 7am to 8pm from December 1 to March 31.

One entrance to the park is the staircase on West 30th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, the closest address being 500 West 30th Street. The 10 Hudson Yards tower, at Tenth Avenue and 30th Street, cantilevers over the 30th Street spur of the High Line and has an entrance on the park itself. Bicycles, dogs other than service dogs, skateboards, scooters and smoking are all banned. Guided options are covered on the High Line walking tour page.

The Moynihan Connector and the Wider West Side

The Moynihan Connector, part of the High Line, opened on June 22, 2023. The public square and gardens are free public spaces, so walking the district costs nothing unless you add Vessel or Edge tickets. Compare the guided walks among New York architecture tours.

Side by Side

The table compares the two guided options on price, length, group size and what each includes. Figures are quoted from each tour listing.

Which One Fits You

The pick for the district itself is the private Hudson Yards tour with optional Edge upgrade. At a from price of $170 per person it costs more, but you get a private guide, 2 to 3 hours, and a route past Vessel and along the High Line. The operator arranges timed tickets if you take the Edge upgrade. It meets in front of the Vessel, with the subway stop 34th Street-Hudson Yards on the 7 line, and moves inside the Shops and Restaurants entrance in bad weather.

If your interest is the park rather than the development, the High Line walking tour costs $50 per person and runs 75 minutes with groups limited to 8. It starts at the West 30th Street staircase, 40 feet above street level. It does not enter Hudson Yards buildings or Vessel.

For a different angle on the West Side waterfront, the architect-narrated NYC architecture cruise from Chelsea Piers passes 100 Eleventh Avenue from the river. Figures current in Q4 2026.