The Heatherwick Studio-designed Vessel at New York's Hudson Yards is planning to maintain rights to any photography taken of the public structure, a move that has prompted an outcry from critics on social media.
The temporarily named Vessel opened to the public last weekend, inviting visitors with timed free tickets to climb its lattice of 154 staircases and capture moments against the Instagrammable backdrop.
However, contention ensued following closer inspection of Hudson Yards Terms and Conditions of the rights of the images, revealing that they will all belong to ERY Vessel LLC ? the company responsible for running the huge public structure.
Writer and critic Tom Dyckhoff and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman were among those who took to social media to criticise Hudson Yards' stipulations. Vessel is "not what public space should be"
"Any photos or videos u [sic] take in Heatherwick's staircase to nowhere r [sic] not yours they're the property of the developer," Furman tweeted. "I'm surprised they don't require you to pass on custody of all your future offspring."
"This is NOT what public space should be," he added, triggering other figures in the architecture and design community to weigh in.
Dyckhoff described the situation as "astonishing" in a Tweet posted in response to Furman. "If you take any photos of videos of New York's new 'Vessel', by Thomas Heatherwick, at #HudsonYards you do not own them," he said...