Designer Thomas Heatherwick has defended the controversial Hudson Yards development in New York City, saying people "shouldn't underestimate what it takes" to build public spaces with private money.
Heatherwick, whose Vessel structure sits on a raised plaza at the heart of the Midtown development, addressed criticism of his project and the wider development in a talk with Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs in Los Angeles last week.
"It's fine to not like it," said the British designer. "But the thing that should be appreciated is the ambition of people to say 'yes' to making ideas really happen."
Thomas Heatherwick defended Hudson Yards at a talk in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of Second Home
Heatherwick also addressed the increasing involvement of private companies in the provision of new urban quarters. Built with private money, Hudson Yards features a cluster of glass-clad skyscrapers surrounding an elevated plaza containing Vessel ? a 16-storey object made up of a lattice of 154 staircases.
The Shed, an arts building by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, completes the 28-acre development, which is built over a working railway yard at the northern end of the High Line on Manhattan's West Side.
In New York, as in London, "government doesn't seem to be leading the development of pieces of city," Heatherwick said. "So it gets left to property developers to create majors pieces of city."
"We shouldn't underestimate what it takes," h...