According to Crain’s, the Thomas Heatherwick–designed sculpture that will stand at the center of Hudson Yard’s Public Square will cost a casino-breaking $200 million. Related Companies chairman Stephen Ross foresees that “It will become to New York what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.” [NB: The Eiffel Tower only cost about the equivalent of $36 million in 1889.] The sculpture’s exact design remains a mystery. In July 2015, a New York Times article said Heatherwick imagined a “vessel” that would be shot through with dozens of stairways. It would be “shaped like a chalice” and “would rise higher than the adjacent, cavernous [100-foot-tall] Culture Shed” designed by DS+R.
