Design

Inside Hudson Yards, Manhattan’s Opulent New Mini-City

With super-tall glass towers, a luxury mall, and a ’grammable urban spectacle, Hudson Yards is very much a development of its time.
A woman looks out over Manhattan from an observation deck at the top of a tower in Hudson Yards.Mark Lennihan/AP

Great, jagged slits of sky separate the skyscrapers that have risen like reflective missile silos at the western edge of Manhattan. Part of the Hudson Yards mega-development, the towers reach up to 1,000 feet, and cast much of a five-acre public plaza at the heart of the development into shadow.

Today, Related Companies and Oxford Properties celebrate the grand opening of Hudson Yards. Nearly 9 million square feet (of an eventual 18 million) is completed or coming on line over the next several months, including a 1 million-square-foot mall, the plaza, and five of six towers.