"It’s a topless pineapple, or maybe half a beehive, with a labyrinthine optical illusion of cascading steps at its core, a dead ringer for a mystifying M.C. Escher conundrum of impossible stairs, suitable for climbing, from nowhere to the sky," wrote Joseph Giovannini about Heatherwick Studio's Vessel when it was unveiled last September. The 150-foot-tall staircase-structure topped out on Dec. 6, so it's now in full pineapple/beehive form. Vessel will be located in New York's Public Square and Gardens at Hudson Yards, designed by New York– and Virginia-based Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, and both the structure and the park are scheduled to open in 2019.
"Today we are marking the exciting moment when the last of the enormous 75 pre-fabricated pieces which travelled all the way from Italy to Manhattan, has been assembled ahead of schedule and with astonishing geometric accuracy," studio founder Thomas Heatherwick said in a press release. "Over the next few months we’ll focus on installing the final details of the structure, as its paving, balustrades, lighting and cladding come together to complete this different kind of public space.”
