Hudson Yards May Have A Hedge Maze!

The first building at Related's Hudson Yard will be a new office tower, built on the site of the an existing maintenance building. It will have 1 million square feet of commercial space and could open by 2015.

The office tower will replace the low-rise building at left.

An earlier rendering shows the entire plan, which includes nine residential buildings, three to four offices, a cultural center, a school, a hotel and a 12-acre park.

For a time, there was a question about whether or not the High Line would be retained as part of the massive, mixed-use project, but a vote this summer by the City Council ensured its future.

The western end of the project, at 10th Avenue, will be comprised of offices and retail. There could be up to four office buildings on site, yet nothing but the first, seen here in the background, can be built until a costly and complex deck is built over the rail yards.

Another view of the mall that will bridge the two towers—a layout not unlike the mixed-use complex Related created with the Time Warner Center.

A hotel is also planned for the site. Like the offices, it is designed by New York mega-firm KPF. The rest of the design team includes residential maven Robert A.M. Stern (15 Central Park West, Superior Ink), Arquitectonica (the Westin Times Square) and Michael Van Valkenburgh (Brooklyn Bridge Park).

Van Valkenburgh is also designing the adjacent Hudson Boulevard, a 4-acre string of parks running from 34th Street to 42nd Street. The beginning of the park can be seen at the bottom of this rendering, with the maze-y thing being located within Hudson Yards.

Another view of the open space, offices and retail, as well as a planned cultural center.

The new subway station planned for the extended 7-Train.

The site plan for the 26-acre site. Most of the renderings featured here comprise the big white block at far right (the offices and retail) and the green space just below the 7-Train station at top right.

The design has changed considerably since Related won the right to develop the Yards after Tishman Speyer bowed out in 2008. Not the tall tower that rises above the site.

Compare that to the designs approved by the City Planning Commission earlier this year, which has a row of uniform towers. (Don't forget that these designs are largely provisional and far from the end result, which will not be finalized for at least another year.)