Transcript:
I think the SHED is pointless.
It was opened on April 5, 2019. They are supposed to commission, produce, and present a wide range of activities in performing arts, visual arts, and pop culture. Its located in the Hudson Yards, the shiny new neighborhood with high-end offices and shopping.
In short, The Shed is supposed to be The New Culture Center of NYC.
The shed, trying to trick us with its humble name, is also a high-end shiny art space.
It was designed to be flexible, inclusive of all artists across all disciplines and for all audiences. But really, it is another 500-million-dollar project that is very deceiving and exclusive.
The architects had a vision for the building. The Shed’s would have an “open infrastructure” that can be “permanently flexible for an unknowable future” and “responsive to variability in scale, media, technology, and the evolving needs of artists.”
The building is able to expand and contract by rolling shell on rails, inspired by the industrial past of Hudson Yards and the High Line. The shell is attached to a conventional building and has a fixed 8-level structure.
When deployed, the Shed’s shell creates a “17,200-square-foot light-, sound-, and temperature-controlled hall that can serve an infinite variety of uses”. The hall can accommodate an audience of 1,200 seated or 2,700 standing; flexible overlap space in the two adjoining galleries of the base building allows for an expanded audience in the hall of up to 3,000. The shell’s entire ceiling operates as an occupiable theatrical deck with rigging and structural capacity throughout. Large operable doors on the Plaza level allow for engagement with the public areas to the east and north when open.
When the Shed’s shell is retracted over the fixed structure, the 19,500-square-foot plaza will be open public space that can be used for outdoor events; the eastern façade can serve as a backdrop for projection with lighting and sound support. The Plaza is equipped with distributed power supply for outdoor functions.
It could’ve been amazing, if it actually did what it said.
It was the mechanics of this moving structure that made the building so innovative. Supposedly, it can be deployed in under 5min.
But when has it actually been moved since its opening? The SHED was opened less than a year ago, and now the wheels are immovable. The lifetime of mechanical architecture is terrible. The wheels are merely for decoration now; they are rusted and bricked in place. All the videos of the Shed’s shell moving online were taken before or at the time of opening. Mechanical architecture is just impractical. The kinetic structure was just a ploy to make the site interesting, to make it a talking point. Other than the moving shell, its frankly really boring to look at.
Was this the building that would hopefully make Hudson Yards more likeable? Is there a way to make it likeable?
I mean they tried. They have a ticket program in which 10% of tickets for every event will be set aside for low-income workers, instead of a hefty ticket price, they will be sold for $10. Maybe this was their attempt to grapple with their bad press.
But really this space was meant to be create a space for artists, a sanctuary for experimentation in a corporate world. Is it isolating famous, celebrity artists from up and coming artists? The area along the highline used to be an affordable space for artist experimentation.
This brings me to another note: their claim to be a cultural center. Where is the sense of culture or artistic history of the neighborhood? The only sense of culture it gives off is this generalized “globalized” aesthetic. It could be a shiny building from anywhere. Truthfully, that could simply be a comment on the culture of the wealthy in this city—steely, undistinctive, and frankly ugly. Does it have to look so dated? The residential building, Fifteen Hudson Yards, could be any other tower in the city. But even the Shed feels unoriginal. We’ve already seen the Shed from Beijing’s water cube.
In short, I think the shed contradicts itself at every point.
It’s an inclusive cultural art center that displays selectively curated art and shows no cultural identity
It’s an inclusive space on private land and you have to buy tickets to enter
It’s a moveable structure that Is bricked in place.
It’s an innovative design that looks like any generic building.
What is the point?
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