What’s Happening: Thomas Heatherwick’s sculptural centerpiece at Hudson Yards closed for three years after four suicides prompted calls for increased security measures. With plans to reopen this year and safety nets installed, can the landmark fulfill its original purpose?

The Download: When renderings of the Vessel were first released, in 2016, eagle-eyed commentators spotted a glaring flaw in Thomas Heatherwick’s design almost immediately. “As one climbs up the Vessel, the railings stay just above waist height all the way up to the structure’s top,” Audrey Wachs wrote in the Architect’s Newspaper, “but when you build high, folks will jump.” Her premonition was correct. Within two years of opening as the centerpiece of the Hudson Yards complex, four people died by suicide, fatally plunging from the 150-foot-tall interlacing web of staircases. Each incident prompted calls for more stringent safety measures that Related Group hesitated to implement. After the fourth suicide, in 2021, the Vessel closed to the public indefinitely.

Now, three years after its closure, the scalable structure plans to reopen, this time equipped with floor-to-ceiling steel protective netting. While research shows that safety nets can drastically reduce suicide attempts, critics argue that such measures are simply too little too late and fault Related for failing to learn from the example of New York University’s Bobst Library (pictured above), which installed plexiglass and metal fencing to curb student suicides in 2012. Instead, the developer opted to ban solo entry, mount signs advertising the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, charge visitors $10 for entry, and print a message from Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation on tickets. An employee at Heatherwick Studio said it designed safety barriers and was frustrated with Related’s resistance to installing them, but Heatherwick’s own hubris is largely behind the unsafe design ever seeing the light of day.

Not that Heatherwick is solely responsible for the Vessel’s unsavory legacy as a suicide magnet. When asked about the newly installed safety netting, a Related spokesperson said the measure will preserve the “unique experience that has drawn millions of visitors from around the globe.” As far as Related is concerned, they need those visitors. The developer sank $200 million into the Vessel’s construction to help lure foot traffic to Hudson Yards, the largest private development in U.S. history whose cost clocked in at $25 billion. It anchors an out-of-the-way neighborhood populated with glassy office and apartment towers and a luxury shopping mall that was left eerily deserted during Covid and hasn’t quite bounced back. It behooves Related to keep the Vessel’s spectacle intact, but many locals might simply see it as a memorial.

In Their Own Words: “Architecture speaks back, and the only way that the Vessel can communicate anything that affirms the value of human life over aesthetics or profit is by doing so explicitly, not with a Lady Gaga promotional pamphlet or a grand reopening, but with a good-faith structural change,” Charley Burlock writes in Hyperallergic. “Weld shut the doors, erect a plaque, and stop trying to make a quick buck off a death trap.”

Surface Says: No matter what your opinion is about the Vessel, its turbulent saga certainly isn’t boring.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK).

Have a news story our readers need to see? Write to our editors.

Reach the design world every morning. Find out more about advertising in the Design Dispatch.

Before she launched Colony, the cooperative gallery that helps uplift and nurture independent American designers, Jean Lin was fueled by the prospect of finding beauty in tough spots to benefit her community. Shortly after Hurricane Sandy devastated New York, a vision of fallen trees languidly draped over cars and power lines sparked the idea for Reclaim NYC, an exhibit she co-founded that invited artists and makers to create work using salvaged storm debris and sold to benefit unsheltered New Yorkers. “Also born from this idea were countless dinners, studio visits, and friendships,” Lin explains in her new book, What We Keep. “It gave me the courage to believe I could run a successful business grounded in the strength of community and the power of relationships, that values the greater good as much as its bottom line.”

With newfound perspective and a clearly defined motive, Lin launched Colony in a rough-hewn Canal Street loft. In the ensuing decade, she grew the business into a beloved fixture within New York’s design community that offers a welcome platform for up-and-coming talent to reach wider audiences and ensure success within an industry often fraught with high barriers to entry. In the gallery, which Lin painted top-to-bottom in an ethereal white shade, their work mingles with design stalwarts like Fort Standard and Bec Brittain. She’s also stayed loyal to her original vision, having launched drops of limited-run objects to be sold for charitable causes and even establishing an incubator program.

While the loft served Colony well, Jean was itching for a slightly more polished home to celebrate the gallery’s decade milestone. “I love that space, and it’s so sentimental to me, but it was falling apart at the seams,” Lin told Surface during a recent visit. “We tried our best to keep it shiny, but it was really starting to go.” Meanwhile, downtown real estate was tanking due to the pandemic, so searching for Colony’s new home became a “now or never” mission while prices in her neighborhood were relatively more affordable. The space she moved Colony into, an airy Tribeca storefront on a picturesque park-facing stretch of West Broadway, checks all the boxes and ensures her roster can reach even more prospective buyers.

London’s Mayfair neighborhood is often described as posh, thanks in part to the palpable elegance imparted by the 168 year-old Art Deco landmark building that houses the Claridge’s hotel. But the question of how to fashion new interiors for a structure with such deep roots is a big one—recently answered by the expertise of Bryan O’Sullivan Studio. A veteran Claridge’s collaborator, the New York–based firm recently imbued Claridge’s Restaurant with a modern take on an Art Deco brasserie, informed by a deep dive into the hotel’s archive and the restaurant space’s many past lives.

The result is breathtaking: historic glass partitions from Victorian-era architect Basil Ionides greet guests in the foyer. Painted wall paneling throughout—care of artist Sam Wood—pops against an abundance of Calacatta Viola marble and stained glass skylights. For good measure, forest green leather banquettes add a delicious contrast to ample warm tones. Survey the scene over classic brasserie fare, including a preponderance of oysters, caviar, and foie gras.

One could procure a Santal 26-scented notebook, should they ever desire, but Le Labo’s recent collaboration with indie publisher Faculty Department is altogether more unexpected. Making Sense, a collectible coffee table tome, shines a light on the inner workings of 12 creative souls from California: chef Sonoko Sakai, Sonoma County-based ceramicist Zoe Dering, sculptor and furniture maker Ido Yoshimoto, and more. Enviable interior shots of their homes and studios are peppered with the occasional Le Labo product: a brutalist concrete Santal 26 candle here, a minimalist ivory canister of Hinoki hand soap there. Pore over its pages with an Encens 9 candle aflame, and savor the slow burn. $85

Experience 27 is a cutting-edge boutique and online shop curating exclusive fashion collections by independent designers such as Rochas Paris, Altuzarra, Thebe Magugu, Plan C, Roksanda, and Bibi van der Velden. Embracing fashion as an art form, their designers create enduring collections with meticulous attention to detail and quality materials.

Surface Says: Inspired by Gertrude Stein’s Paris apartment and salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus, and just steps away from some of Madrid’s top museums, parks, and botanical gardens, Experience 27 carries an enviable assortment of wares from the top independent designers across fashion, furniture, and fine jewelry.

Nicolas Party creates a vibrant poolscape at the Italian hotel Le Sirenuse.

The James Webb Telescope reveals clear details of the Horsehead Nebula.

Amateur archaeologists unearthed a mysterious Roman dodecahedron.

We wish you luck ever trying to sell this defective West Elm coffee table.