The Vessel, the spiraling staircase at Hudson Yards on Manhattan’s Far West Side, was closed to visitors on Tuesday, a day after a 21-year-old man jumped to his death in the third suicide in less than a year.It was unclear when the 150-foot structure, the vast development’s centerpiece, would reopen to the public. A spokesman for Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, said that the structure was “temporarily closed” and that the firm was consulting with suicide-prevention experts, including psychiatrists, about how to limit the potential for more suicides.
The structure was considered a major tourist draw for Hudson Yards, a $25 billion project that is the largest mixed-use private development in U.S. history. After opening to great fanfare in 2019, the development now faces an uncertain future as a result of the pandemic’s effect on everything from tourism to office work. It has been largely empty for months.
Visitors and critics had raised concerns that the Vessel’s design could pose safety risks. Audrey Wachs, the former associate editor of The Architect’s Newspaper, wrote in a 2016 critique: “As one climbs up Vessel, the railings stay just above waist height all the way up to the structure’s top, but when you build high, folks will jump.”
The community board first contacted Related Companies about taking steps to prevent additional suicides at the structure last year after the first one.
“Because the Vessel’s chest-high barrier is all that separates the platform from the edge, the likelihood of a similar, terribly sad loss of life cannot be ignored,” Mr. Kern, the board chairman, wrote in a letter.
Mr. Kern said on Tuesday that the board continues to believe that the best way to stave off further suicide attempts is to increase the height of the barrier.
“That’s the only thing that’s going to work,” he said.
He added that he understood there was hesitation to alter what is considered a work of art, but that should not be a priority now: “After three suicides, at what point does the artistic vision take a back seat to safety?”