$150 Million Stair to Nowhere

First off, don’t let the title fool you- we love this. Art should provoke, push boundaries, and inspire. The just-announced “Vessel” on New York’s West Side, by famed British designer Thomas Featherwick, is a jaw dropping climbable sculpture, something sure to make NYC even more enviable, from an art and architecture perspective.  The bronzed steel and concrete structure has an amazing 154 interconnecting staircases (!!) that allow for visitors to climb an impressive 2,500 steps to a number of vantage points. Vessel is being assembled in Monfalcone, Italy, and will make it’s way to New York sometime in 2017.

Designed to be part of New York’s epic Hudson Yards development, Vessel was financed and approved privately, meaning it went through far less design review than other public projects would. The result is exuberant, transfixing, and bold. It also makes us want to jump on a plane and explore it in person, as soon as it’s completed. Props to the billionaire developer, Stephen M. Ross, whose deep pockets allowed an artist to take risks and create something for the public to enjoy for years to come. Make sure to click images to see the structure in detail. Via The New York Times: